Mideast in flames due to cowardly Hamas attack -Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 16 - The Middle East is in flames due to the "cowardly" Hamas attack on Israel last Saturday, President Sergio Mattarella said Monday.
    "The Middle East is again in flames, because of the cowrdly attack that has already succeeded in elevating to unprecedented levels the spiral of horror and violence," he said at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome in a speech marking World Food Day.
    "We are witnessing a worrying increase in international tensions, and a widening of the fault lines between countries and between regions of the world, and a return to imperialistic attitudes and nationalisms," Mattarella went on.
    Referring to Russia's use of grain as blackmail in the Ukraine war, Mattarella also said that it was a "crime to use food and water as means of war". (ANSA).