At a press conference this afternoon at the United Nations, Francesca Albanese spoke, however, of war crimes committed by both Hamas and the State of Israel and which must be investigated and punished.
The Italian jurist, who has held the position since last year, affirms that one side or the other cannot be defended or attacked. Neither the Israeli Government nor the men of Hamas have clean hands and should be held accountable.
“The indiscriminate attacks by Hamas militants against Israeli civilians, which killed some 1,400 people, injured many more and took hostages, are war crimes and must be prosecuted. Israel’s actions, which use humanitarian aid as a weapon of war and expose civilians to the risk of death, they constitute war crimes and the world may even be facing crimes against humanity,” he warns, in statements to TSF.
The UN special rapporteur also added that Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza has already killed some 5,700 Palestinians, 40% of whom were children. Therefore, the Italian jurist argued that the events of the 7th cannot be looked at without taking the past into account.
Francesca Albanese explains that criticizing Israel does not mean justifying the atrocities committed by Hamas.
“As the UN Secretary General said [António Guterres] Said yesterday [terça-feira]”The attacks at the beginning of the month did not occur in a vacuum, but in the context of 56 years of suffocating occupation that Israel imposed on the Palestinians,” he says.
“This occupation violates international law. The construction of settlements, the confiscation of land and the brutality of the population are in themselves a war crime,” adds Albanese.
Albanese also said he would like to hear from Israelis affected by the violence, but the country’s governments, to this day, have not given approval to independent rapporteurs.
Source: TSF
