UN expert warns Israel’s ‘genocidal violence’ may spread beyond Gaza
GENEVA: An independent U.N. expert warned on Monday that Israel’s “genocidal violence” in Gaza risked spreading to other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory amid a large-scale military operation in the West Bank.
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory, said Israel’s recent intensification of its operations in the occupied West, Including lies beyond Gaza, across Israeli territory included “a dangerous escalation.”
‘Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole,’ she said, ‘The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it. There is a growing body of evidence that no Palestinian is safe under the unfettered control of Israel.”
Albanese is an independent expert appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council but not speaking on behalf of the United Nations. He has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in its conflict in Gaza.
Violence has surged in the West Bank after the Hamas October 7 raid in Israel. Monday’s statement came after days of surging violence, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry saying at least 26 Palestinians had been killed since Wednesday when Israel launched simultaneous raids across the northern West Bank.
Mideast and Western governments, along with U.N. officials, have called on Israel to stop the large-scale operations in the Palestinian territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
“Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously as an element of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” Albanese said. Longstanding impunity accorded to Israel is encouraging the de-Palestinization of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group,” she added.
She urged the international community to “do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability, and finally put an end to Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory.”
