NEW YORK, Nov 18 (APP): Pope Francis has called for an investigation into whether Israel’s relentless strikes on the Gaza Strip constitute genocide, according to excerpts from an upcoming book.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope says, according to published excerpts of the book published by Italian daily ‘La Stampa’ on Sunday and posted on the internet.
The pontiff adds that “it should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
Since Oct 7 2023, Israeli military’s massive bombardments have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
It’s the first time Pope Francis has talked about potential genocide to describe the conflict in Gaza. In September he suggested that Israel’s actions in Gaza and Lebanon were immoral and disproportionate.
The book — titled “Hope Never Disappoints. Pilgrims Towards a Better World” — is being released ahead of the pope’s 2025 Jubilee. It was written by Hernán Reyes Alcaide based on interviews with Francis.
Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians were reported killed or injured in an Israeli strike on a multi-storey residential building housing at least six families in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya town on Sunday.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency said around 70 people were living in the property but the Gaza government media office put the number of those killed at 72, according to media reports.
Video footage of the strike site obtained by Reuters, the British news agency, showed locals pulling bodies from a huge pile of rubble, with surrounding houses also damaged, some heavily.
The Israeli army sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, last month in what it said was a campaign to fight Hamas fighters from regrouping.