**UN Rapporteur Warns of Spread of “Israeli Genocidal Violence” to West Bank**
Francesca Albanese, an independent Italian expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but not speaking on behalf of the organization, warned on Monday that “Israeli genocidal violence” in Gaza might extend to the occupied West Bank.
The expert has long accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. In a new statement, Albanese said, “The genocidal violence perpetrated by Israel could extend beyond Gaza to all of the occupied Palestinian territories.”
She explained that “Israeli apartheid targets Gaza and the West Bank as part of a comprehensive process of elimination, replacement, and expansion.” Since the onset of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on October 7, violence has surged in the West Bank, where approximately 490,000 Israeli settlers live among three million Palestinians.
Albanese noted that the “long-standing impunity granted to Israel has allowed for the de-Palestinianization” of the occupied territories and “left Palestinians at the mercy of forces seeking to eradicate them as a national group.”
She urged the international community to “do everything possible to immediately halt the threat of genocide against the Palestinian people” and “ultimately, to end Israeli settlement in Palestinian territories.”
The Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, with 251 individuals taken hostage, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 confirmed dead by the army.
Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in response to the Hamas attack have caused at least 40,786 deaths, with the UN confirming that the majority of the casualties are women and children.
By/radwa sherif ✏️✏️📚