UN expert accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese issued a scathing report regarding Israel's actions in Gaza, alleging that there were compelling grounds to suspect Israel of perpetrating genocide in the Palestinian enclave. 

Drawing evidence from various sources including on-site organizations, investigative reports, and consultations with affected individuals, Albanese suggested that Israel had engaged in at least three of the five acts outlined in the UN Genocide Convention, an Al Jazeera news report said. 

These are "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"

Israel reportedly caused the deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October, with an additional 12,000 individuals presumed dead under the rubble. 

Notably, over 70% of these casualties were reported to be women and children. Albanese challenged Israel's assertion that the remaining 30% of casualties were active combatants, alleging a lack of evidence to support this claim. 

The report also highlighted Israel's blockade of Gaza, which she argued resulted in deaths due to starvation, including predicted deaths of at least 10 children daily. 

She also raised concerns about the extensive injuries inflicted upon more than 70,000 Palestinians by Israeli forces, alongside the detention and alleged mistreatment of thousands of Palestinian men and boys. 

The report condemned Israel's destruction of Gaza's vital infrastructure, including hospitals and agricultural land, which she argued had devastating consequences for the region's inhabitants. 

Furthermore, Albanese accused Israel of exploiting concepts from international humanitarian law, such as human shields, collateral damage, and safe zones, to justify its actions in Gaza. 

She criticized Israel's portrayal of Gaza's entire population as human shields, alleging that this rhetoric effectively labeled all Palestinians as either combatants or accomplices, making them vulnerable to military targeting. 

"Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as 'terrorist' or 'terrorist-supporting', thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable," she wrote.

"In this way, no Palestinian in Gaza is safe by definition. This has had devastating, intentional effects, costing the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroying the fabric of life in Gaza and causing irreparable harm to its entire population."

She concluded that Israel's treatment of Gaza's population and infrastructure as inherently linked to terrorism had resulted in catastrophic consequences, including significant loss of life and irreparable harm to the region's inhabitants. 

The report painted a grim picture of Israel's conduct in Gaza, raising serious allegations of genocide and condemning its use of legal justifications to mask what is considered to be war crimes.