ROME — Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most explicit criticism yet of Israel’s conduct in its year-long war. In excerpts published on Sunday from a forthcoming book, the pontiff said some international experts say that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide”. “We should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition (of genocide) formulated by international jurists and organisations,” the pope said in the excerpts, published by Italian daily La Stampa.
Last December South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for allegedly violating the Genocide Convention. In January the judges at the court ordered Israel to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts . The court has not yet ruled on the core of the case – whether genocide has occurred in Gaza.
Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups. “Following today’s report in Vatican News: There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens,” said Yaron Sideman, ambassador to the Holy See. “Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the J.
