The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, is an expert on #HumanRights and #InternationalLaw.
She is widely published, holds a number of academic positions, and has ten years experience advising various international bodies on human rights.
She has just delivered her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, in which she summarises the patterns of violence in #Gaza and public statements by Israeli officials before reaching this conclusion: "The only reasonable inference to be drawn is a state policy of genocidal violence against Palestinians."
It is worth watching the 12 minute summary of her report.
I appreciate the way that when she is discussing the victims of the #GazaGenocide, #FrancescaAlbanese doesn't stop with the more than 32,000 Palestinians who have been confirmed killed by direct Israeli violence. She makes sure to include the 12,000+ Palestinians who are missing, presumed dead under the rubble, and the 71,000+ Palestinians who have been wounded, most of them with 'life-altering' injuries.
She also mentions (without putting a figure on it) the many who are dying of #starvation, disease and the collapse of the healthcare system due to targeted, systematic attacks by the Israeli military. Most of these deaths are not included in the above figures. There are tens of thousands of cancer patients, pregnant people and all kinds of other life-threatening chronic medical conditions going untreated in #Gaza right now. The total number of people killed by Israel's genocidal violence already far, far exceeds the widely quoted figure of ~32,000. And thousands more are going to die deaths of deprivation in the weeks ahead, living out their last agonising days as their bodies waste away from lack of food, clean water, adequate shelter and medical care.
Many tens of thousands of lives still hang in the balance, depending how quickly #Israel (armed by western governments) is stopped.
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