A messy dispute broke out on Wednesday over whether Pope Francis used the word "genocide" to describe events in Gaza.
Pope Francis © Mena Today
A messy dispute broke out on Wednesday over whether Pope Francis used the word "genocide" to describe events in Gaza, with Palestinians who met with him insisting that he did and the Vatican saying he did not.
The opposing versions emerged at an afternoon press conference with 10 Palestinians who met the pope on Wednesday morning at his Vatican residence. That meeting followed a separate one with Israeli relatives of hostages in Gaza.
"When we shared the stories of the families that have been killed (in Gaza) he mentioned 'I see the genocide'," said Shireen Awwad Hilal, who teaches at the Bethlehem Bible College.
"It was very clear, the word genocide did not come from us. It came from His Holiness, Pope Francis," she said.
But a statement sent by Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, in response to question texted by a reporter, said the opposite.
France's foreign ministry accused Israel's embassy of "unacceptable" behaviour on Tuesday after it banned two French groups, including elected officials, from visiting Israel and alleged the groups were linked to a terrorist organisation.
More than a dozen people were killed in a predominantly Druze town near the Syrian capital on Tuesday in clashes sparked by a purported recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammad which angered Sunni gunmen, rescuers and security sources said.
A U.N. panel of experts charged with monitoring sanctions in Sudan is investigating how mortar rounds exported from Bulgaria to the United Arab Emirates ended up in a supply convoy for Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia fighters, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
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