The highest UN knowledgeable on Palestinian rights, Francesca Albanese, mentioned Israel was attempting to make Gaza Metropolis unlivable in its assault on the enclave’s largest city space, and was endangering the lives of Israeli hostages.
“Israel is bombing utilizing unconventional weapons… it’s attempting to forcibly evacuate Palestinians. Why? That is the final piece of Gaza that must be rendered unlivable earlier than advancing the ethnic cleaning of that piece of land,” Albanese informed reporters in Geneva.
She didn’t make clear what she meant by “unconventional weapons.”
The Everlasting Mission of Israel to the UN rejected Albanese’s feedback.
“Her quite a few statements have showcased her willingness to go to excessive lengths in (the) delegitimization of the State of Israel,” the Mission mentioned in a press release.
“In accordance with her, Hamas doesn’t embed itself in civilian infrastructure, doesn’t cynically use civilians as human shields, and customarily doesn’t actually exist,” it added.
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza alongside the coastal street towards southern Gaza, September 13, 2025, after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders from Gaza Metropolis. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)
Israel has mentioned that its impending offensive to beat Gaza Metropolis is essential for it to satisfy its aim of destroying Hamas. It has inspired the roughly a million individuals residing there to evacuate south. Nevertheless, the UN and quite a few nations say its ways quantity to pressured mass displacement and that circumstances within the humanitarian zone in southern Gaza are dire, with meals in brief provide.
Italian lawyer Albanese serves as a particular rapporteur on human rights within the Palestinian territories, one in all dozens of consultants appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on particular world points.
She is an outspoken critic of Israel who has been accused of antisemitic and pro-terror rhetoric.
She commonly accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza and has mentioned that the October 7, 2023, bloodbath, torture, rapes and abductions carried out by Hamas in southern Israel should be put in a “context of a long time of oppression imposed on the Palestinians.”
“The continuing assault to take the final remnant of Gaza won’t solely devastate the Palestinians, however endanger additionally the remaining Israeli hostages,” Albanese mentioned in Geneva.
She once more accused Israel of genocide and mentioned the worldwide neighborhood was complicit.
Flames erupt from a constructing following an Israeli army strike in Gaza Metropolis, September 14, 2025. (AP Photograph/ Yousef Al Zanoun)
The almost two-year marketing campaign within the Palestinian enclave has killed greater than 64,000 individuals, based on the Hamas-run well being authorities, whose numbers can’t be verified.
Some rights teams like Amnesty Worldwide have additionally accused Israel of committing genocide, however not the United Nations itself.
UN officers have previously mentioned it’s as much as worldwide courts to find out genocide.
Israel rejects the accusation of genocide, citing its proper to self-defense following the October 7, 2023, assault by Hamas-led terrorists who killed 1,200 individuals and captured 251 hostages, of whom 47 are nonetheless captive in Gaza.
In July, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced that Albanese could be added to the US sanctions listing for her actions, which he described as prompting illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis on the Worldwide Prison Courtroom.
Albanese mentioned her makes an attempt to journey to New York for the UN Normal Meeting in September to ship a report don’t look promising.
