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In an interview, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories reacted to the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli operation in Gaza last week. Francesca Albanese said that although Sinwar was a military target, “he should have been tried and brought to justice”.
“I would have liked to see [Ismail] Haniyeh (who was killed in Tehran in an alleged Israeli strike in July), Sinwar and [Mohammed] Deif (killed by the Israeli army in Gaza in July) appear before the International Criminal Court alongside the Israeli leaders for whom Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied to the ICC for arrest warrants,” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese told FRANCE 24.
Read Also: ICC Prosecutor Urges Nations To Cooperate With Arrest Warrants
Albanese added: “I want justice to be served. I expect it to be served.”
“Clearly, Yahya Sinwar was a military target (…) and an individual who had committed crimes and ordered crimes against Israeli civilians, but he should have been tried and brought to justice,” she continued.
Back in March, Albanese presented a report on the situation in Gaza to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide”. The report also mentioned “ethnic cleansing”.
The special rapporteur said she would be presenting another report to the UN next week in New York. The report “will confirm what I’ve said: this is genocide”, she told FRANCE 24.
“We can’t cop out and pretend not to know what’s going on. (…) Even without calling them genocide, the crimes taking place in Gaza and the consequences of those crimes are unfolding right before our eyes,” Albanese continued.
The Israeli government has been “making genocidal remarks” for a year, Albanese added, referring in particular to the words of Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in October 2023: “We are fighting human animals.”
Israel strongly denies any intention to annihilate an ethnic group.
Faced with criticism from Israel and the United States and also France because of her recent comments comparing the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust, Albanese retorted that Paris should instead “apply international law” and “comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice”. Back in July, the ICJ ordered Israel to “put an end to its presence” in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Albanese also said that she would not resign, despite the criticism.
