Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a summit in Copenhagen on Oct. 2, 2025. Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday she was accused of "complicity in genocide" in a complaint made to to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Rome's support for Israel's war on Gaza.
Meloni said in comments broadcast by local media that she had been named in a filing by an advocacy group for Palestinians that accused her and others of complicity for supplying arms to Israel.
She said the complaint also targeted her Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and she also thought that Roberto Cingolani, head of defense group Leonardo, had been named.
United Nations investigators have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, where it has been waging war against the Strip for two years.
The ICC has arrest warrants outstanding for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
They both face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over Israel's campaign in Gaza, including starvation, murder and persecution.
But the ICC has not yet charged either of them with genocide. The Palestinian advocacy group behind the complaint naming Meloni is calling for the court to assess the possibility of opening a formal investigation into the charge.
The complaint, dated Oct. 1, was signed by some 50 people, including law professors, lawyers and several public figures.
"By supporting the Israeli government, particularly through the supply of lethal weapons, the Italian government has become complicit in the ongoing genocide and the extremely serious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people," wrote the authors of the court filing.
"I don't think there is another case in the world or in history of a complaint of this kind," Meloni said in the televised comments.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,160 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa has a case against Israel, accusing it of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
