Author: Mariam Wazeer
Claim: During an emotional address, Giorgia Meloni stated, “America and Israel are killers of innocent children!! I am a mother, I cannot sit with murderers!!.
Fact: Meloni did not make any such statement directly labelling the United States and Israel “killers of innocent children”. Moreover, the video in the claim shows her making speeches in different instances which were not related to Israel or the US.
On 5 May 2026, Facebook user ‘Khuda Dino Shah’ posted a compilation of clips of Italian premier Giorgia Meloni from different instances.
The Sindhi-language caption states:
[Translation: “America and Israel are killers of innocent children!! I am a mother, I cannot stand with murderers!!” Italian Prime Minister Meloni’s emotional address]
Similar iterations of the claim were posted with stills of Meloni and the following caption in Urdu:
[Translation: “I am also a woman, also a mother… and I can never stand with those who stain their hands with the blood of innocent children.”]
Meloni’s stance on Israel
While Italy — both historically and under Meloni in particular — has largely supported the Israeli state and its campaign in Gaza, the Italian Prime Minister has made certain statements critical of Israel in recent months.
On 20 May, Meloni strongly condemned a video showing Israeli minister Ben Gvir mistreating activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla being held in a detention facility, stating, “It is intolerable that these protesters, among whom there are many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment, which violates human dignity. Italy also demands an apology for the treatment inflicted on these demonstrators and for the total disregard shown towards the explicit requests of the Italian government.”
Earlier, on 30 April, she had condemned Israel’s move to seize the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters, saying activists were “unlawfully detained”.
On 14 April, Meloni announced that her right-wing government was suspending “the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel” after accusing the latter’s forces of firing “warning shots at a convoy of Italian UN peacekeepers in Lebanon”.
Back in August 2025, Meloni had denounced Israel’s attacks on Gaza as excessive, saying there were “too many innocent victims” in the war that started in October 2023. However, she did express her country’s support for the Middle Eastern nation’s “right to self-defense” at the time.
During the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza which killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, Meloni, then a member of Parliament, posted on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Another massacre of children in Gaza. No cause is fair when it sheds the blood of the innocent.”
Meloni’s stance on the US-Israeli war on Iran
Italy has also refrained from supporting the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has strained Italy-US relations.
In the aftermath of the US bombing of a girls’ school in Iran in February 2026, Meloni made the following statement: “To that end, on behalf of the government, I express firm condemnation of the massacre of young girls at a school in Minab, in southern Iran. I extend solidarity to the families of the very young victims and call for the swift determination of responsibility for this tragedy.”
In April, Trump publicly criticised Meloni for comments related to the war. The same month, Italy also rejected the US request to use the Sigonella airbase in Sicily for operations related to the war.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check was not able to find credible news reports that describe Meloni particularly labelling the United States and Israel “killers of innocent children” or asserting that she “can never stand with those who stain their hands with the blood of innocent children.”
The video in the claim consists of several clips of the Italian prime minister, many of which show her walking, with no audio in the background. There are only two clips with audio of her speaking, purportedly making the statement attributed to her in the captions of the claim.
However, both clips are taken from speeches made by Meloni which do not refer to Israel or the US in any way.
These speeches predate the Gaza genocide, which began in October 2023, as well as the US bombing of the girls’ school in Minab in February 2026. Therefore, she could not have been commenting on Israeli attacks on Gaza or US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Both speeches also predate Meloni’s October 2022 inauguration as Prime Minister of Italy. In these instances, she addressed the crowd in her capacity as President of the Brothers of Italy party, a position she has held since March 2014.
The first clip depicts her in a white blazer against a blue background. This is taken from Meloni’s speech at the 2019 Brothers of Italy conference in Turin, which can be viewed here (9:46 onwards).
In this clip, Meloni is actually making an argument about the cultural significance of the city of Rome. She is responding to a left-wing television host who stated rhetorically that “Paris is the capital of Italy” on the Italian state network, RAI — a statement which drew backlash from the country’s right wing.
She states in Italian:
[Translation: “…to have the French pay your millionaire salary instead of expecting it to be paid with the RAI license fee. The capital of Italy is Rome! Rome! Rome is the capital of Italy, and I’ll tell you more!
Rome should be the capital of the European Union, and I want to bring this demand to the European Parliament because the capital of the European Union can’t be the most convenient place for offices. It must be the place that best represents its millenary identity.”]
The second clip is a close-up of Meloni with a red curtain in the background. This is taken from the Italian premier’s speech at the 2021 VOX rally in Madrid, which gathered right-wing nationalist parties across Europe. In her speech, Meloni argued against the “LGBT lobby” and the proposition to use the gender-neutral terms “Parent 1, Parent 2” on official forms, as well as mass immigration and globalism, among other things.
The speech can be viewed here (the portion which matches the video in the claim can be found 9:42 onwards).
In the clip being fact-checked, Meloni is describing her identity in the context of a right-wing defence of traditional values. She states, this time in Spanish:
[Translation: “I am a wife! I am a mother! I am Italian! I am Christian! They can’t take that away from me!”]
Based on analysis of the original videos of these two speeches, and the lack of credible news reports on any such statement by Meloni, Soch Fact Check concludes that the claim is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating widely on Facebook, across at least 15 posts with as high as 11000 likes on one post, and more than 1000 likes on multiple posts. It was also shared on Instagram, X and Tiktok.
Recently, other false claims that Meloni had snubbed or even slapped Netanyahu have been shared online. Soch Fact Check debunked them here.
Another false claim about Meloni which surfaced recently on Pakistani social media was that she had spoken in favor of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while stating that she did not know former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Read our fact-check here.
Meloni has also spoken out against the circulation of AI deepfakes which appear to show her sitting on a bed wearing underwear.
Conclusion: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not make any statement calling the US and Israel “killers of innocent children” or saying that she could never “stand with those who stain their hands with the blood of innocent children.”
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com