UN expert's report outlines 'reasonable grounds' genocide threshold crossed in Gaza

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, submitted a report to the UN Security Council on Monday, which states that "there are reasonable grounds to believe" that the threshold for genocide in Gaza has been met.

"Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as 'terrorist' or 'terrorist-supporting', thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable," says the report.

A necessary component to declare genocide is intent, which Albanese says has been met by Israel's actions in Gaza.

"In the latest Gaza assault, direct evidence of genocidal intent is uniquely present," the UN expert says.

"Vitriolic genocidal rhetoric has painted the whole population as the enemy to be eliminated and forcibly displaced."

In the report, titled Anatomy of a Genocide, Albanese also accuses Israel of using a "humanitarian camouflage" through the strategic use of international humanitarian law to "legitimise its genocidal violence in Gaza".