A United Nations human rights expert says she has received threats throughout her mandate of compiling a report about Israel’s genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, said on Wednesday that she had been threatened during the time she was preparing a report on Israel’s acts of genocide in Gaza.
Her report, titled “Anatomy of a Genocide”, was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. Israel said it “utterly rejects” the report.
When asked whether she received threats during her mandate, Albanese said, “Yes, I do receive threats. Nothing that so far I considered needing extra precautions. Pressure? Yes, and it doesn't change either my commitment or the results of my work.”
The UN expert, who found Israel committed genocide, did not elaborate on the nature of the threats, nor did she say who had issued them.
“It’s been a difficult time,” Albanese said. “I've always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate.”
She said in her report that Israel violated three of the five acts listed under the international genocide convention, warning that the overwhelming scale of Israel’s attacks on Gaza reveals the regime intends to destroy Palestinians as a group physically.