Journalism of Courage
The top UN expert on Palestinian rights, Francesca Albanese, said Israel was trying to make Gaza City unliveable in its assault on the enclave’s largest urban area and was endangering the lives of Israeli hostages.
“Israel is bombing using unconventional weapons … it is trying to forcibly evacuate Palestinians. Why? This is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be rendered unliveable before advancing the ethnic cleansing of that piece of land,” Albanese told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.
Israel has said its offensive in Gaza City is part of a wider plan to defeat Hamas. It says it has asked civilians to move south to what it calls a humanitarian zone.
The UN and several governments say this amounts to forced mass displacement. They also warn that conditions in the south are severe, with food supplies running low.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer, is one of dozens of independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. She said the assault would not only harm Palestinians but also “endanger the remaining Israeli hostages”.
She accused Israel of genocide and said other countries were complicit. Local authorities in Gaza say more than 64,000 people have been killed during nearly two years of fighting. Some human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have also spoken of genocide, though the UN itself has said it is for international courts to decide.
Israel rejects those claims, saying it is acting in self-defence after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken, according to Israeli figures.
In July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list. He accused her of encouraging what he called illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.
Albanese told reporters her planned trip to New York to present a report to the UN General Assembly this month may not be possible because of the sanctions, Reuters reported.
