UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) – The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories told the General Assembly that more than 60 governments, including Western powers and several Arab states, have enabled Israel’s “genocidal machinery” in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese delivered her briefing remotely from Cape Town, South Africa, where she presented her latest report, Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime, highlighting the role of international actors in sustaining the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
Albanese said her 24-page report documented how foreign military, economic, and diplomatic support has allowed Israel’s policies to escalate from apartheid to what she described as genocide. 
“Global powers have harmed, founded, and shielded Israel’s militarized apartheid,” she said, adding that the settler-colonial project in Gaza has metastasized into the “ultimate crime against the indigenous people of Palestine.”
The report places the United States at the center of the regime’s war economy, providing two-thirds of its arms imports and shielding Israel from accountability through seven UN Security Council vetoes. 
European powers including Germany and Britain were also cited for supplying advanced weaponry despite evidence of mass atrocities, while the European Union was criticized for remaining Israel’s key trading partner, helping maintain the blockade that has left Gaza “strangled, starved, [and] shattered,” Albanese said.
Albanese also criticized Arab states that have normalized relations with Israel. Egypt, she said, maintains “significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing,” further restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The presentation sparked a heated reaction in the UN chamber, with Israeli envoy Danny Danon calling Albanese a “wicked witch.” 
Human rights experts condemned the outburst as an attempt to silence independent voices. Albanese responded, “If the worst thing you can accuse me of is witchcraft, I’ll take it. But if I had the power to make spells, I would use it to stop your crimes.”
Albanese urged the international community to suspend all military and trade agreements with Israel, including dual-use goods, and to build a “living framework of rights and dignity, not for the few, but for the many.”
Human rights groups described the report as the most damning UN indictment to date of the war in Gaza, which has killed an estimated 68,560 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 2023.