Pope Francis has said that allegations of a genocide in Gaza should be “carefully investigated” marking some of his strongest criticism yet of Israel’s war in the territory.

“According to some experts… what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” Vatican News, the Holy See’s official news outlet, cited the pontiff as writing in a forthcoming book. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Speaking of refugees, the pope said: “I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” according to Vatican News.

With few exceptions, most Gazans have been prevented from leaving the territory since the war began, but almost the entire population of more than 2 million has been internally displaced.

The excerpts are from the book “Hope never disappoints: Pilgrims towards a better world,” which is due to be released on November 19.

Responding to the report in Vatican News, Yaron Sideman, Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, said “there was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens,” referring to the Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw another 250 taken hostage.

“Since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens,” Sideman wrote on X. “Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state.”

The 87-year-old pontiff is the latest among a growing number of international figures and organizations to refer to Israel’s military operation in Gaza as a potential genocide.

Israel is facing a case brought by South Africa at the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which Pretoria accuses the Jewish state of genocide, saying Israeli leadership is “intent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Israel earlier this year rejected what it called the “grossly distorted” accusation of genocide leveled against it by South Africa, arguing at the ICJ that its war is being fought in self-defense against Hamas, and that it was targeting the militant group rather than Palestinians as a whole.

A UN Special Committee report released Thursday said Israel’s war conduct in Gaza “is consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” including mass civilian casualties and using starvation as a weapon.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week accused Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza, in some of his strongest criticism of the country since the war began last year. The Gulf Arab state was close to normalizing relations with Israel before the October 7 war.

Pope Francis rarely comments on politics, often limiting his remarks to calls for peace. In March, he repeated his call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in his traditional Easter message at the Vatican, condemning war as an “absurdity.”

He pleaded for an “immediate ceasefire,” access to humanitarian aid in Gaza and the “prompt release of the hostages.”

In December 2023, the pope addressed the deaths of two women killed by an Israeli sniper inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza. He lamented that “unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire” in Gaza and invoking scripture on war.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, the ministry of health there says, and has flattened large swathes of the territory, triggering a humanitarian crisis.