A messy dispute has broken out 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, Reuters reports.

The opposing versions emerged at an afternoon press conference with 10 Palestinians who met the pope in the 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 a question texted by a reporter, said the opposite.

“I am not aware that he (the pope) used such a word. He used terms that he expressed during the general audience and words that in any case represent the terrible situation that is being lived out in Gaza,” Bruni’s statement said.

Other participants at the Palestinian news conference concurred that they had heard the pope use the word genocide.

Read more here.