Pope Francis will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, the Vatican said, as the Catholic pontiff has become more vocal in his criticism of Israel's military campaign in Gaza.Abbas travels to Italy this week, where he is expected also to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.The Vatican announced the meeting with Abbas in a brief note on Tuesday, but did not offer further details.In November, Francis suggested the global community should study whether Israel's campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people. The comment, in a forthcoming book, drew a public rebuke from Israel's ambassador to the Holy See.Israel says accusations of genocide in Gaza are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups. Gaza authorities say almost 45,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 106,000 injured in Israel's offensive, while most of Gaza's 2 million people are homeless or displaced as famine loomsFrancis and Abbas have met several times, and are last known to have spoken on the phone in November 2023, a month into the Israel-Hamas conflict.The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but has recently been more outspoken about Israel's campaign.In October, he criticised the ‘shameful inability’ of the international community to bring an end to the war.Francis, who says he stays in daily contact with a Catholic parish in Gaza, has also criticised Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon, where it is fighting the Hezbollah group, as ‘beyond morality’.
