GENEVA: The top UN expert on Palestinian rights, Francesca Albanese, said Israel was trying to make Gaza City unliveable in its assault on the enclave’s largest urban area and was endangering the lives of Israeli prisoners.

“Israel is bombing using unconventional weapons ... it is trying to forcibly evacuate Palestinians. Why? This is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be rendered unliveable before advancing the ethnic cleansing of that piece of land,” Albanese told reporters in Geneva.

The Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN rejected Albanese’s comments.

“Her numerous statements have showcased her willingness to go to extreme lengths in (the) delegitimisation of the State of Israel,” the Mission said in a statement.

UN rights expert says complicity with ‘genocide’ ‘shame of our time’

“According to her, Hamas doesn’t embed itself in civilian infrastructure, doesn’t cynically use civilians as human shields, and generally doesn’t really exist,” it added. Israel says the offensive to take control of Gaza City is part of a plan to defeat Hamas for good and that it has warned civilians to head south to a designated humanitarian zone.

However, the UN and numerous countries say its tactics amount to forced mass displacement and that conditions in the humanitarian zone are dire, with food in short supply. Italian lawyer Albanese serves as a special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of dozens of experts appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on specific global issues.

“The ongoing assault to take the last remnant of Gaza will not only devastate the Palestinians but endanger also the remaining Israeli hostages,” Albanese said. She accused Israel of genocide and said the international community was complicit.

The nearly two-year campaign in the Palestinian enclave has killed more than 64,000 people, according to local authorities.

Some rights groups like Amnesty International have also accused Israel of committing genocide, but not the United Nations itself. UN officials have in the past said it is up to international courts to determine genocide.

‘Shame of our time’

She said that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza, slamming what she said was the “complicity” of other countries as “the shame of our time”.

“Far too many states continue to look away, normalise the suffering and even profit from it,” Francesca Albanese said.“Arms trade and diplomatic engagement with Israel continue unabated,” she said.

“This is not just morally wrong, this is unlawful,” she insisted, demanding “accountability (for) the very people who have been giving orders to continue trade and arms transfers toward Israel”.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2025