Pope Francis calls for genocide inquiry into Israel’s war on Gaza

In a new book to be published this week, Pope Francis I endorsed a genocidal inquiry into Israel’s war on Gaza – which has killed or maimed more than 150,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced, starved or sickened millions more over the past 13 months.

“In the Middle East, where the open doors to nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I think above all of those who leave Gaza amid the famine that has hit their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulties of getting food and aid into their territory,” the Pope wrote in his latest book, which goes on sale in some countries on November 19.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the Pope added. “It should be scrutinized to determine whether it fits the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

The Pope’s words echo last week’s conclusion by a UN panel of experts that Israel’s annihilation of Gaza is “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”

The International Court of Justice – a UN body – is currently weighing a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel supported by more than 30 nations and regional blocs, as well as hundreds of groups and experts around the world.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three former Hamas leaders murdered by Israel, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination.

Many lawyers, scholars and other experts –including some of Israel’s leading Holocaust historians-has called Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza genocide. Early in the war, Raz Segal — an Israeli historian and professor of Holocaust and genocide at Stockton University in New Jersey —called Israel’s Gaza attack “a textbook case of genocide.”

Numerous world leaders and other international officials, artists, entertainersand others – including half of US Democratic voters surveyed in May – also agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Many Palestinian Christians have been killed, wounded or otherwise harmed by Israeli forces during the bombardment, invasion and siege of Gaza. With only 800 to 1,000 believed to remain in Gaza, members of the world’s oldest Christian community warned early in the war that they were “under threat of extinction”.

In their most notorious attack on Christians in Gaza, Israeli forces bombed the 12th century Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, Gaza’s oldest, in October 2023, killing 18 Palestinians, including several children. Among the victims were two women and an infant related to former Republican U.S. Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan.

After an Israeli sniper fatally shot an elderly woman and her daughter on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City last December, Pope Francis condemned what he called a “terrorism”.

Amidst the death and destruction caused by Israel’s attack on Gaza, the Christmas celebration was held last December cancelled in Bethlehem, the alleged birthplace of Jesus Christ.

“How can we celebrate when we feel that this war – this genocide – that is taking place could resume at any time?” asked Palestinian Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac at the time.