ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis suggested the international community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide of the Palestinian people, in one of his most explicit criticisms yet of Israel’s conduct in his war which has lasted for a year.

In excerpts published Sunday from a forthcoming book, the pontiff said that some international experts believe that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide.”

“We must investigate carefully to assess whether this corresponds to the technical definition (of genocide) formulated by jurists and international organizations,” the pope said in extracts published by the Italian daily La Stampa.

Last December, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention. In January, court judges ordered Israel to ensure its troops do not commit any acts of genocide. The court has not yet ruled on the heart of the case: whether genocide took place in Gaza.

Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is only tracking Hamas and other armed groups.

“Further to today’s article in Vatican News: There was a genocidal massacre of Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts by seven different fronts aimed at to kill its citizens,” said Yaron Sideman, ambassador to the Holy See.

“Any attempt to call it by another name targets the Jewish state,” he said on social media.

The Vatican has not commented on Francis’ most recent remarks, but its news site published excerpts from the book on Sunday, including the commentary on genocide.

Francis, head of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, is generally careful not to take sides in international conflicts and emphasizes de-escalation. But he has recently stepped up his criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas.

In September, he denounced the deaths of Palestinian children during Israeli strikes in Gaza. He also sharply criticized Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, calling them going “beyond morality.”

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Some 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage that day, according to Israeli counts. .

The Israeli ground and air offensive has since killed more than 43,800 people in the enclave, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Francis has never publicly described the situation in Gaza as genocide. But last year he found himself at the center of a complicated conflict after a meeting with a group of Palestinians at the Vatican, who insisted he had used the word with them in private, while the The Vatican said this was not the case.

Last week, Francis met at the Vatican with a delegation of former hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, who are advocating for the release of their family members and others still detained.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Joshua McElwee, additional reporting by Emily Rose and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, editing by Frances Kerry)