Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, says Israel’s claim that its raids in the occupied West Bank are justified under the law of self-defence “has no validity”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, she said that 20 years ago, the International Court of Justice determined that Israel “could not invoke self-defence under article 51 of the UN Charter to justify its Wall in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

“This past July, the court indicated that Israel’s very presence in the oPt is itself unlawful.

“Israel’s perversion of the law on self-defence must be recognised for what it is: A brazen attempt to provide an imprimatur of ‘legality’ to the maintenance of its unlawful aggression against the territorial integrity and political independence of the State of Palestine,” she said.