Israel has destroyed Gaza: UN expert on genocide convention

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – Israel has destroyed Gaza during five months of military operations, the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, told the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

"The harrowing number of deaths, the irreparable harm done to those who survive, the systematic destruction of every aspect necessary to sustain life in Gaza – from hospitals to schools, from homes to arable land – and the particular harm to hundreds of thousands of children and to pregnant and young mothers," said Albanese.

She said in a report to the council that Israel’s actions can only be interpreted as constituting "prima facie evidence of an intention to systematically destroy the Palestinians as a group."

“Following an analysis of Israel’s actions and patterns of violence in its onslaught on Gaza, underpinned by dehumanizing rhetoric by high-ranking Israeli officials and often reflected in soldiers’ actions on the ground, the Special Rapporteur’s report found that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide had been met,” the UN Human Rights Office said.

One of the findings of Albanese's report is that Israel's executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted "foundational rules of international humanitarian law" - distinction, proportionality and precaution, the UN said in a statement.

This is "an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people," said Albanese, an Italian international lawyer and academic.

"By deliberately redefining the categories of human shields, evacuation orders, safe zones, collateral damage and medical protection, Israel has used their protective functions as 'humanitarian camouflage' to conceal its genocidal campaign," she said.

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

"The vehement anti-Palestinian discourse, which frames the entire Palestinian people in Gaza as enemies to be eradicated and forcibly removed, has been pervasive across all segments of Israeli society," she added.

Albanese said that since Oct. 7, Israel has killed over 32,333 Palestinians, including more than 13,000 children.

"Over 12,000 are presumed dead under the rubble and 74,694 wounded, many with life-changing injuries," she said.

Seventy percent of residential areas in Gaza have been destroyed, and 80% of the entire population has been forcibly displaced, said the UN specialist.

"Thousands of families have lost loved ones or been wiped out entirely. Many could not bury and mourn their relatives and were forced instead to leave their bodies decomposing in homes, in the street, or under the rubble," said Albanese.

"Thousands of Palestinians have been detained and systematically subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Two million have been forced into hunger and starvation. The incalculable collective trauma will be experienced for generations to come."

The Special Rapporteur said that calls for "violent annihilation from Israeli high-ranking officials" with command authority aimed at soldiers on duty on the ground were "compelling evidence of explicit and public encouragement to commit genocide."