UN expert warns Israel's 'genocidal violence' risks spreading beyond Gaza

An independent UN expert warned Monday that Israel's "genocidal violence" in Gaza risked spreading to other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory amid a large-scale military operation in the West Bank.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, warned in a statement that Israel's recent intensification of its operations in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory, marked "a dangerous escalation".

"Israel's genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole," she said.

"The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it. There is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel's unfettered control."

Albanese, who is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza.

Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza war sparked by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

Monday's statement came after days of surging violence, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry saying Monday that at least 26 Palestinians had been killed since last Wednesday, when Israel launched simultaneous raids across the northern West Bank.

Middle Eastern and Western governments as well as UN officials have called on Israel to end the large-scale operations in the Palestinian territory, which it has occupied since 1967.

"Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement and territorial expansion," Albanese said.

"The long-standing impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinisation of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group," she added.

She called on the international community to "do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel's occupation, ensure accountability and ultimately end Israel's colonisation of Palestinian territory."

Hamas's October 7 attack which started the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's military campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,786 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.