The UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday strongly criticized Israel for trying to justify its military offensive in the occupied West Bank, saying Tel Aviv cannot claim self-defense for its occupation and actions in the area.

Since Wednesday morning, the Israeli army has been launching a large-scale and ongoing military attack in the cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and Tubas in the northern West Bank, the largest since 2002.

As of Friday afternoon, at least 19 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli military attacks.

“Israel claims that what it is doing in the West Bank is justified under the law of self-defense,” Francesca Albanese said in a statement on X, rejecting this with the words: “This claim is baseless.”

She pointed out that the International Court of Justice ruled twenty years ago that Israel could not invoke self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter to justify building the wall in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Albanese added that the International Court of Justice recently affirmed its position, stating that "Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal in itself."

She said that Israel's occupation cannot be justified by any claim of "self-defense," adding: "As an ongoing illegal use of force, Israel's occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories cannot be justified by any claim of self-defense."

The UN official condemned Israel's manipulation of international law, saying: "Israel's distortion of the law of self-defense must be recognized for what it is: a brazen attempt to provide a stamp of "legitimacy" to maintain its illegal aggression against the territorial integrity and political independence of the State of Palestine."

Albanese stressed that Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories is in order to achieve real security, adding: "If Israel really wants to achieve its alleged security, the best and clear way to do so is to stop its colonization of another people's land, withdraw from all territories, and make reparations for the damage it has suffered (as the International Court of Justice has demanded), making sure to apologize to its victims upon exit."

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 7 last year.

At least 673 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 5,400 injured, and more than 10,300 arrested in the occupied territories, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion issued on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.