The United Nations Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, said that the Israeli leadership and its soldiers are distorting the principles of international law to legitimize violence.

Albanese pointed out that Israeli leaders play with words and use terms such as “human shields” and “safe zones” to justify their violations of human rights and international law.

The UN rapporteur also called for banning the export of weapons to Israel and imposing economic sanctions on it. She explained that Israel must be forced to comply with international law and the United Nations Charter, stressing that no measures had been taken against Israel for committing war crimes over the years.

Albanese previously confirmed, in a report published last March, that there are “logical reasons” indicating that Israel has committed many acts of genocide, leading to ethnic cleansing.

Albanese stated in her report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that “the overwhelming nature and scale of the Israeli attack on Gaza, and the devastating living conditions it has caused, reveal an intent to physically destroy the Palestinians as a group.”

On February 12, Israel decided to prevent Albanese from entering the occupied territories because of her statements about the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023. Israel considered that the UN rapporteur’s statements “carry an anti-Semitic character.”