A U.N. special rapporteur on Monday accused Israel of effectively being granted a “free hand” to torture Palestinians, blaming governments for enabling abuses in a report presented in Geneva.
Launching her report, Francesca Albanese said it documents the "ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people," highlighting "Israel’s widespread and systematic use of torture, alongside the creation of a torturous environment against Palestinians."
She accused governments of enabling abuses, saying Israel "has effectively been given a license to torture Palestinians because most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it."
According to the report, between October 2023 and January 2026, Israeli forces arrested more than 18,500 Palestinians, including children, while nearly 100 died in custody and about 4,000 remain forcibly disappeared. Thousands have been detained without charge and held in inhuman conditions, the report said.
Among those detained were doctors, journalists, and humanitarian workers, she added.
The rapporteur stressed that "since October 2023, torture has effectively become state policy," describing a system that is "socially produced, politically defended and publicly normalized.”
Albanese also warned that a proposed Israeli bill introducing the death penalty for Palestinian detainees "marks yet another dangerous escalation," calling for investigations into officials, including Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, and Israel Katz, and for arrest warrants where warranted.
She stressed that abuse extends beyond detention centers, with her report describing a "torturous environment" imposed across the occupied Palestinian territory, including the destruction of homes, hospitals, and infrastructure, as well as forced displacement and starvation.
"The testimonies that I and many others are documenting are not only tragic stories of suffering; they are evidence of atrocity crimes targeting the totality of the Palestinian people across the totality of the occupied land through a totality of criminal conduct," Albanase said.
She described the situation in stark terms, concluding that "genocide has become the ultimate form of torture: continuous, generational and collective."
"The way you respond to this abomination will be a test of our collective legal and moral responsibility," she added.
The rapporteur finally warned of broader consequences if violations go unchecked.
"Disregard for international law will not stop in Palestine, as demonstrated by what is happening to the people of Iran, the people of Gulf countries, the people of Lebanon, and the people of Venezuela, and will likely engulf the rest of the world later," she underscored. "What is lost in Palestine will be lost to us all."
