UN specialist charges Israel with committing 'genocide' in Gaza

 Francesca Albanese states that there are clear signs Israel has breached three of the five acts outlined in the UN Genocide Convention.

Palestinians walk past destroyed buildings in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza

According to a report by a United Nations-appointed expert, there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that Israel is committing genocide in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip.

In the report released late on Monday, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, indicated that there are clear signs Israel has violated three of the five acts outlined in the UN Genocide Convention.

Albanese, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but not an official representative of the United Nations, stated that she found "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of ... acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met."

"The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel's assault on Gaza, along with the destructive living conditions it has imposed, reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group," she said.

Israel immediately rejected the report as an "obscene inversion of reality."

Entitled "Anatomy of a Genocide," the report listed the violating acts as: "killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to the group’s members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Albanese noted that Israel has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7. An additional 12,000 are reported missing, presumed dead under the rubble.

She stated that more than 70 percent of the recorded deaths were women and children, and Israel has not substantiated that the remaining 30 percent—adult males—were active Hamas fighters.

Regarding the second violated act, Albanese stated that Israeli forces have injured over 70,000 Palestinians and detained thousands of Palestinian men and boys, subjecting them to torture and mistreatment.

Regarding the third act, Albanese remarked that Israel has destroyed or severely damaged most of Gaza’s life-sustaining infrastructure, including hospitals and agricultural land.

"Incalculable collective trauma will be experienced for generations to come," Albanese said in a statement.

"Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure," she said.

Additionally, Albanese added that calls for "violent annihilation" from Israeli high-ranking officials aimed at soldiers on duty on the ground serve as "compelling evidence of explicit and public encouragement to commit genocide."

"Outrageous allegations."

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva stated that the country "completely rejects the report," describing it as "simply an extension of a campaign seeking to undermine the very establishment of the Jewish State."

"Israel's conflict is with Hamas, not with Palestinian civilians," it stated in response, criticizing Albanese's "outrageous accusations."

Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, resulting in approximately 1,200 fatalities. The armed Palestinian group also took around 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates approximately 130 are still in Gaza, with 33 presumed deceased.

A US official informed AFP that Washington is "aware" of the report but has "no reason to believe Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza."

The US asserted on Monday that it had no evidence of Israel violating human rights and that its ally has assured it has not used donated weapons to breach international humanitarian law.

In her statement, Albanese emphasized that Israel’s "genocide of Palestinians" in Gaza represents an escalation of a "long-standing settler colonial process of erasure."

She called for an end to the "ongoing Nakba," referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine when Zionist militias expelled over 750,000 Palestinians from their villages, demolishing homes and causing thousands of deaths. These events were followed by the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.