UN rapporteur says Israel targets Gaza, West Bank in elimination, expansion strategy

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine on Monday said that Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank as part of an elimination and expansion strategy.

"Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement and territorial expansion," Francesca Albanese said in a statement.

Albanese warned that Israel’s intensification of its military assault against the northern West Bank marks a "dangerous escalation of grave violence and human rights violations" committed by Israel against the Palestinian people since Oct. 7.

"Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole," she said.

Noting that continuous genocidal incitements by top Israeli leaders and officials remain unpunished, she said: "Increasingly loud calls by Israeli leaders for turning the towns in the West Bank and refugee camps into a 'mini-Gaza,' are translating into military operations that are causing heavy death tolls and widespread destruction to the West Bank's urban areas."

There has been a notable increase in the frequency of aerial and ground attacks on the governorates of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem, and Tubas, she said, with a particular focus on refugee camps, over the past few months.

Albanese underlined that since last October, 652 Palestinians have been killed outside of Gaza, including 151 children. Besides, she said, thousands have been injured, over 3,300 have been displaced, and more than 12,000 have been arbitrarily detained.

"The long-standing impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinisation of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group," she warned.

The special rapporteur called on 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 ultimately end Israel’s colonisation of Palestinian territory."