Arab–Israel conflict
Pizzaballa condemned the October 7 attacks by Hamas as "barbaric" and "horrific". He described the "barbarism of Hamas" as "unacceptable and incomprehensible", saying that it had brought back "a state of war" which in its quality surpassed what had been seen in the Holy Land in recent times. He offered himself as a hostage in exchange for Israeli children kidnapped on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza.
At the same time, he advocated for an immediate end to the Gaza war in its early days and for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories. In late October 2023, he wrote that "[m]y conscience and moral duty require me" to condemn the "atrocity" that was committed on 7 October. He continued that the "same conscience, however, with a great burden on my heart, leads me to state with equal clarity" that "this new cycle of violence" brought to Gaza had led to immense suffering, including for children and women. He continued: "These are tragedies that cannot be understood and which we have a duty to denounce and condemn unreservedly. The continuous heavy bombardment that has been pounding Gaza for days will only cause more death and destruction [...] It is time to stop this war, this senseless violence." Pizzaballa further stated that the military campaign in Gaza won't solve the conflict. He was a signatory to the 2023 "Statement on the Escalating Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza" which condemned attacks on civilians, called for de-escalation and for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. On his visit to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 2023, Pizzaballa donned a Palestinian keffiyeh and expressed a renewed desire for peace in the region. He cosigned the Christmas message released by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem advocating Christians to refrain from public celebration of the holiday in solidarity with those affected by the war.
In July 2024, speaking to a delegation from Aid to the Church in Need, the Patriarch summed up the difficulty of leading both Arab and Hebrew Catholics, saying: "The situation is so polarised that if you are close to the Palestinians, the Israelis feel betrayed, and vice versa. When I speak of the suffering of Gaza, the Hebrew Catholics tell me about the areas which suffered in the 7 October attacks, and on the other side, the Palestinians think only of Gaza. Everybody wants to have a monopoly on the suffering".
In February 2025, the Patriarch commented on the situation in the West Bank, saying that at the time a temporary ceasefire in Gaza started, military and police operations had increased in the West Bank. In July of the same year, he and the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem led a delegation of Christian leaders and diplomats in a solidarity visit to Taybeh, a fully Christian town in the West Bank which had seen attacks by Israeli settlers. During this visit, Cardinal Pizzaballa stated that in the West Bank, currently, the only law was that of power and not that of rights, continuing that "we must work for the law to return to this part of the country, so anyone can appeal to the law to enforce their rights."
After three people were killed when an Israeli strike hit parts of the roof of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, the compound of which shelters hundreds of displaced civilians (both Christians and Muslims) and includes a home for dozens of disabled children cared for by nuns from the order of Mother Teresa, Cardinal Pizzaballa, along with the Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, was granted access into the war zone in Gaza. Pizzaballa went on to stay in the church compound from 18 to 20 July 2025, also visiting the nearby Christian-run Al-Ahli hospital where he met doctors, nurses and patients, a Caritas medicine distribution center as well as the wider neighborhood. He further coordinated the delivery of 500 tons of aid (consisting of food, medical and sanitary supplies) into Gaza which were only authorized for entry after the church incident. Speaking on the Gaza Strip famine amid the war, Cardinal Pizzaballa said he had witnessed extreme hunger in the Strip, and described the then prevailing Israeli blocks on food and medical shipments as a "sentence" for starving Palestinians. He called the policy "unacceptable and morally unjustifiable". At the same time, Pizzaballa said that it was also important "to acknowledge the solidarity [with people in Gaza] of many parts of the Israeli society" and that it was "also thanks to them we could do what we are doing, the [eventual] delivery [of aid], everything".
