UN Rapporteur Albanese threatened over report on Gaza genocide
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Earlier today, UN Expert Francesca Albanese submitted a report titled "Anatomy of a Genocide" to the UN Human Rights Council.
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Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, makes remarks at the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (UN website)
Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza, said on Wednesday that she received threats after publishing a report on "Israel's" genocidal actions in Gaza.
The remarks came as she was responding to questions from reporters after submitting Tuesday a report titled "Anatomy of a Genocide" to the UN Human Rights Council.
When questioned about whether her report had resulted in threats, Albanese confirmed, "Yes, I do receive threats. Nothing that so far I considered needing extra precautions. Pressure? Yes, and it doesn't change either my commitment or the results of my work."
Albanese did not disclose who issued the threats nor elaborated on their nature. However, she did mention that since her tenure in 2022, she had been constantly attacked.
"It's been a difficult time," she said. "I've always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate."
Read more: Guterres in Rafah: 'Nothing can justify collective punishment' of Gaza
"Israel" which has rejected the report said that Albanese was "delegitimizing the very creation and existence of the State of Israel."
In response, Albanese rejected the accusations, and said that one of her key findings was that "Israel's" executive, military leadership, and soldiers deliberately "subverted their protection functions in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people".
"The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the unveiling of this policy is an Israeli state policy of genocidal violence toward the Palestinian people in Gaza," she said.
With over 30,000 martyrs and thousands injured, "Israel's" diplomatic mission described the use of the term genocide as "outrageous," noting that the military campaign is directed against the resistance and not civilians.
Read more: Countries at UN rally behind expert who accused 'Israel' of genocide
'Acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza met'
On Monday, prior to the submission of the report, Albanese stated that there was sufficient evidence suggesting that "Israel" has engaged in multiple instances of "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" in the Gaza Strip.
Albanese explained that the Israeli occupation has violated three of the five acts listed under the International Genocide Convention, stressing that the "overwhelming nature and scale of Israel's assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group."
In the report, Albanese also noted "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of... acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met."
These acts include: "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."
