Francesca Albanese says her report, which includes over 300 testimonies, ‘examines Israel’s systematic use of torture against Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, 2023.’ Though appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the UN.
Reposted from Le Monde, March 20, 2026
UN expert Francesca Albanese claims Israel was systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale “that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent,” in a report released to the media on Friday, March 20.
The UN’s special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said that since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the Gaza war, Palestinians in custody “have been subjected to exceptionally ruthless physical and psychological abuse.”
Agence France-Presse (AFP) has sought a comment from Israel’s mission in Geneva, which has previously accused Albanese of being motivated by an “obsessive, hate-driven agenda to delegitimize the state of Israel.”
Albanese has faced harsh criticism, allegations of anti-Semitism and demands for her removal from Israel and some of its allies over her relentless criticism and long-standing accusations of “genocide.” Last month, France and Germany called for her to resign following her remarks to a forum in Doha. Albanese said they had done so based on “false accusations” and a “manipulation” of what she had actually said. Though appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
‘Unprecedented scale’
The report “examines Israel’s systematic use of torture against Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, 2023.”
“Brutal beatings, sexual violence, rape, lethal mistreatment, starvation and the systematic deprivation of the most basic human conditions have inflicted profound and lasting scars on the bodies and minds of tens of thousands of Palestinians and their loved ones,” the report said.
Israel is party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Albanese said she had gathered written submissions, including over 300 testimonies.
‘Widespread humiliation’
Albanese said that since October 2023, arrests of Palestinians in the occupied territories had “escalated dramatically,” with more than 18,500 people arrested, including at least 1,500 children. The report said around 9,000 Palestinians were still in detention, while “more than 4,000 have been subjected to enforced disappearance.”
She urged all countries “to do everything in their power to stop the destruction of what remains of Palestine” as every delay “worsens irreversible harm and further entrenches a system of cruelty.”
Albanese urged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to request arrest warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. She is due to present her report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.
Le Monde is a French newspaper founded in 1944 by Hubert Beuve-Méry. It is the most widely read paid national daily newspaper in France, with 2.44 million readers in 2021, and the most widely circulated, with around 500,000 subscribers, including 414,000 digital subscribers and 87,000 print subscribers.
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