Israel minister criticises Pope's call to study whether Gaza offensive a 'genocide'

An Israeli government minister today criticised Pope Francis for suggesting the international community should study whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people, Reuters reports.

In an open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio, Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said the pope’s remarks – made in excerpts from a forthcoming book that were published last month – amounted to a “trivialisation” of the term genocide.

“As a people who lost six million of its sons and daughters in the Holocaust, we are particularly sensitive to the trivialisation of the term ‘genocide’ – a trivialisation that comes dangerously close to Holocaust denial,” Chikli wrote.

Chikli, who ended the letter by calling Francis “a dear friend of the Jewish people,” asked the pope “to clarify your position regarding the new accusation of genocide against the Jewish state.”

The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Israel has killed over 45,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 2023, it has also besieged the enclave and banned the entry of food, water, medicines and other essentials such a fuel. Hospitals and health care centres have also been targeted by occupation forces with hospitals losing 75 per cent of their capacity, while 75 per cent of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure has been damaged, with at least 50 per cent completely destroyed.

Read: Palestinian president meets Pope to discuss Gaza’s ‘very serious’ needs

Residential homes have been razed and cities almost entirely wiped out. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced over the past 15 months, many numerous times. Rights groups have highlighted that nowhere is safe in Gaza as Israel has bombed areas it has ordered Palestinians to move to, killing displaced civilians.

The vast majority of those killed are children and women. Recent testimonies from Israeli reserve soldiers revealed that “Israeli army divisions compete over who kills the largest number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

In the book excerpts published by Italian daily La Stampa, the pontiff said some international experts said 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.

Israel faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its conduct in Gaza.