The UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, the Italian Francesca Albanesesaid today that Israel’s “genocidal violence” in Gaza risks spreading to the West Bank.

The independent expert, who is mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak for the organization, has repeatedly accused the Israel for “genocide” of Palestinians in Gauze.

In a new statement, the official states that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks going beyond the borders of Gaza and spreading throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.”

“Israeli apartheid targets Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, in a comprehensive process of extermination, replacement and territorial expansion,” Albanese charged.

From the beginning of the war between him Israel and the Gaza Strip, which erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, there is an upsurge in violence in the West Bank, where nearly 490,000 Israelis live in Jewish settlements among three million Palestinians.

“The long-standing impunity afforded to Israel allows for the de-Palestinization” of the occupied territories, “leaving Palestinians at the mercy of forces that seek to exterminate them as an ethnic group,” Albanese charged.

The rapporteur believes that the international community must “do everything in its power to put an immediate end to the danger of genocide against the Palestinian people” and “finally, put an end to the settlement of the Palestinian territory by Israel”.

The Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 left 1,205 people dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. During the attack, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, of which 33 are dead according to the army.

In retaliation, Israel conducted a major air and ground operation in Gaza, which has already killed at least 40,786, according to Hamas’ health ministry. The majority of the dead are women and children according to the UN.