In its coverage of Jewish organizations reacting to comments made by Pope Francis, the National Catholic Register quoted a statement from B’nai B’rith International CEO Daniel Mariaschin and Director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels expressing outrage regarding the Pope falsely accusing Israel of committing genocide.

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The news that Pope Francis would like the international community to investigate whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide has shocked and angered many Jews in the U.S. and Israel.

In a book excerpt published Nov. 17 in the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the Pope urges an inquiry into what some have labeled an Israeli genocide of Gaza civilians. The book, Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Toward a Better World, is based on interviews with the pontiff in advance of the 2025 Jubilee year. It was published on Nov. 19 in Italy, Spain and Latin America, and will follow in other countries.

“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 organizations,” the Holy Father writes in the book, Vatican News reported.

This is not the first time Pope Francis, who is deeply connected to Holy Land Christians and speaks daily with Gaza’s tiny beleaguered Catholic community, has strongly criticized Israel’s actions. In September, he suggested Israel’s military maneuvers in Gaza and Lebanon were “disproportionate” and “immoral.” A Palestinian delegation that met the Pope in 2023 said he used the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions, but Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni denied this, stating, “I don’t think he used that word.”

Israel insists that it is acting in self-defense against Iran-backed Islamic terrorists bent on its destruction. In addition to the Oct. 7 massacre, both Hamas and Hezbollah have fired thousands of rockets at Israeli towns and cities, displacing more than 200,000 Israelis.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and several other organizations have accused Israel of genocide, claiming that the IDF intentionally targets Palestinian civilians and is trying to evict Palestinians from Gaza. “Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there,” a U.N. Special Committee tasked with investigating Israel’s actions stated in a report published on Nov. 14.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas invaded southern Israel and killed 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals. The health ministry figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, or between those killed by Israel or Palestinian friendly fire.

Israel says the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) goes to great lengths to keep Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way, either by dropping leaflets or telephoning civilians before an airstrike. It is Hamas, Israel asserts, that has launched thousands of rockets at Israel from Palestinian homes, hospitals and even mosques to maximize Palestinian civilian casualties and mobilize international hatred against the world’s only Jewish nation and its supporters.

Hamas — which the U.S. has designated a terror organization — is refusing to release the 100 remaining hostages, including seven Americans, that they kidnapped from Israeli homes and a music festival not far from the Gaza border during the Oct. 7 attack. Hostages who were released during a brief ceasefire say they were starved and tortured, imprisoned in airless tunnels or in the homes of Gaza civilians. Some witnessed Israeli women being raped. The youngest hostage is now a toddler. The oldest is 86.

The Biden administration has denied that Israel is committing genocide but has repeatedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must do much more to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians and that adequate humanitarian aid reaches the people of Gaza.

The Israeli government expressed dismay at the Pope’s words.

“There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens. Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state,” Yaron Sideman, ambassador to the Holy See, said on X in response to the Pope’s assertions.

Leading Jewish organizations have long maintained that the war in Gaza does not come close to meeting the criteria for genocide, noting that the term was being leveled at Israel within days of retaliating against Hamas.

B’nai B’rith International, which self-identifies as the world’s oldest and most widely known Jewish organization, said it is “stunned and outraged” by the Pope’s assertion that Israel may have committed genocide.

“Pope Francis’ mention of ‘some experts’ falsely accusing Israel of genocide is gratuitous and damaging,” B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel Mariaschin and Director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs David J. Michaels said in a joint statement. “The suffering of noncombatants in Gaza has been not just prompted but engineered by Hamas, while Israel has done more to try to limit harm to an enemy’s surrounding civilians than any party to warfare in history.”

Thirteen months of intense fighting between Hamas and Israel “have not yielded mass civilian fatalities in Gaza relative to wars elsewhere,” they said, adding other conflicts have exacted a much higher human toll.