Turin, 30 March (LaPresse) – "We believe that saving lives is currently the priority. During Ramadan, Muslims were not allowed to go to the Temple Mount (the Jewish name for the Esplanade of the Mosques, ed.) and Jews were not allowed to access the Western Wall (as the Wailing Wall is known, ed.). The same restrictions applied to all three religions, for security reasons." This was stated by the Israeli ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, in an interview with Corriere della Sera, regarding the ban imposed by the police on Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. "There was anger in the Islamic world because we did not allow worshippers to enter the mosques on the Temple Mount. Then they understood, because missiles from our enemies fell on the Old City and also struck the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” he explains. Days ago, fragments of an Iranian missile fell in that very area, although no condemnation of Iran was heard.” Cardinal Pizzaballa “is by no means a dangerous person, but a person in danger. ‘If, in fact, he had been hit by a missile, we would have been held responsible. We would have been asked why we had not taken care of him,’ he emphasises. The summons to the Farnesina "is part of a diplomatic procedure, of the open and sometimes critical dialogue we have with the Italian government. We respect and listen to one another; sometimes we disagree. We would have preferred a different response,‘ he adds. ’We will explain the situation with sensitivity. We understand that Palm Sunday is very significant for the Catholic Christian world and we respect that. The last thing we would want is to offend any Catholics or the Patriarch. It was an unfortunate incident, President Isaac Herzog told him, for the reasons I have outlined."