A top international lawyer and former United Nations official, Francesca Albanese, has declared that Israel possesses no legal authority over the Gaza Strip. The former UN official accuses Israel of systematically creating conditions to destroy the Palestinian population.
Former UN official calls for end of occupation
Albanese, in a strongly worded statement posted on X, asserted that despite having no lawful claim, Israel continues to enforce conditions of life calculated to obliterate the people trapped within the territory.
She highlighted the destruction of all medical infrastructure, including emergency facilities operated by groups like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). This, according to her is a deliberate strategy to ensure agony and death for those surviving bombs and sniper fire.
“Israel has no authority to block anyone from entering the Palestinian territory it illegally occupies,” Albanese stated.
She urged the international community to stop normalising the illegal occupation by bending to its diktats. The expert also called for respect for the ongoing deliberations of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanding global powers force Israel to end its occupation.
Francesca Albanese accuses state of engineering genocide
Broadening her accusation, Albanese revealed that the mass killing of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem after October 2023 led her to conclude there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was committing acts of genocide outside Gaza as well.
She questioned international faith in ceasefire agreements and hostage deals, noting that after killing 500+ people in about 3 months, Israel armed and supported by the US continues its genocide in Gaza undisturbed.
Albanese concluded with an urgent appeal, warning, that such act should not be allow to become the new normal.
In a related development, the Israeli government has banned Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from operating in the Gaza Strip. This decision follows a dispute over the medical charity’s refusal to provide a list of its Palestinian and international staff to Israeli authorities.
Similarly, a coalition of eight Arab and Islamic nations has issued a forceful condemnation of Israel’s repeated Gaza ceasefire violations. The concurrent crisis deepens for Palestinian refugees in occupied East Jerusalem following the targeted disruption of vital UN agency services.
