The UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine has praised the courage of Annelle Sheline, the US State Department officer who resigned her post to protest the White House’s support for Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on social media, Albanese said, “Courage is a heavy gift to carry,” above an earlier post commending Sheline for her “courage and moral standing”.

Albanese added in her message that it was better to be courageous than to have “13,000 small coffins weighing on our conscience” — in an apparent reference to the number of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.

Sheline has explained that her decision to quit as a human rights officer with the State Department was also due to having a young daughter.

“If in the future she were to ask me about what I did as this was happening [in Gaza], I want her to know that I didn’t stay silent. I couldn’t continue to watch what was happening and just keep going to work every day,” Sheline told Al Jazeera.