Vatican newspaper decries Iran war’s child casualties, effects of Israeli bombardment of Lebanon
March 13, 2026
The Vatican newspaper lamented the Iran war’s child casualties and decried the humanitarian effects of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
“The tragic conflict currently engulfing the Middle East has an emblematic face—stained with blood: that of the children losing their lives and sustaining injuries amidst the bombardments,” Federico Piana wrote in the most prominent front-page article in L’Osservatore Romano’s March 12 edition.
Citing a statement from UNICEF, Piana said that “the number of those cynically and arrogantly labeled ‘collateral damage’ is rising at a horrifying rate: since the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran—igniting the fuse of a regional war that now appears completely out of control—1,100 minors have been killed or wounded by missiles and drones.”
Piana added:
To realize that the humanitarian situation is literally spiraling out of control, one need only look at Lebanon. The Israeli invasion and bombardments are driving the “Land of Cedars” toward collapse; they are doing more than merely spreading death. As the humanitarian organization Oxfam reported in recent days, at least half a million people have been forced to flee their homes, yet only 117,000 of them have been able to find shelter in designated refuges ...
But in Gaza, too, people continue to die from deprivation. Oxfam reports that “the prices of basic necessities have skyrocketed, exacerbating a catastrophic humanitarian situation for a population already stripped of everything: in some areas of Gaza City, people are currently surviving on barely two liters of water per person per day, while food and essential supplies are virtually impossible to find in local markets.”
The greatest concern remains the potential for a further escalation of violence across the entire Middle East.
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Further information:
- Già 1.100 “danni collaterali” (L'Osservatore Romano, 3/12/26)
- Child casualties rise amidst deepening Middle East conflict (UNICEF, 3/11/26)
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