ROME (Reuters) -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 La Stampa.

Last December South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for allegedly violating the Genocide Convention. In January the judges at the court ordered 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.

Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups.

"Following today’s report in Vatican News: 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," said Yaron Sideman, ambassador to the Holy See.

"Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state," he posted on social media.

The Vatican did not offer comment about Francis' most recent remarks, but its news website reported on Sunday about the book excerpts, including the genocide comment.

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 decried the deaths of Palestinian children in Israeli strikes in Gaza. He also sharply criticized Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon as going "beyond morality".

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led assault on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023. Some 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage that day, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's ground and air offensive has since killed more than 43,800 people in the enclave, according to the Gaza health ministry.

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.

Last week Francis met at the Vatican with a delegation of former hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, who are advocating for the release of family members and others still being held.