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 . Last December South Africa a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for allegedly violating the Genocide Convention. In January the judges at the court 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. The pontiff has stepped up his criticism of Israel’s conduct in the besieged territory Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups. The Vatican did not offer comment about Pope Francis’ most recent remarks, but its news website reported on Sunday about the book excerpts, including the genocide comment. Pope Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful not to take sides in international conflicts, and to stress de-escalation. But he has stepped up his criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas recently. In September, he the deaths of Palestinian children in Israeli strikes in Gaza. He also sharply criticised Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon as going “beyond morality”. Pope Francis has not previously described the situation in Gaza as a genocide in public. But last year he was at the centre of a messy dispute after a meeting with a group of Palestinians at the Vatican, who insisted he had used the word with them in private, while the Vatican said he had not.