‘Do you think any government officials wrote a document saying I want to commit genocide?’

Following the presentation of her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, held a press conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Wednesday. She answered a question from a reporter who asked if she had a written document from the Israeli government with ‘a clear intent to commit genocide’. In her report, Albanese states that by analysing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught on Gaza since 7 October 2023, ‘there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met.’