Francesca Albanese believes Israel had no right to attack Hamas on October 7

Reluctantly recognizing that the pogrom perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023 “could be qualified” as terrorism, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, nevertheless stressed on Piers Morgan’s set that the war led by Israel against Hamas in Gaza is, according to her, illegal.

On October 7, 2023, some 6,000 Gazans including 3,800 Hamas-led terrorists stormed communities in southern Israel, killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, kidnapped 251 hostages of all ages, and committed numerous atrocities and using sexual violence as a weapon on a large scale. These massacres sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, which has opened on 7 fronts, with Iran and its proxies, including the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and other groups in Syria and in Iraq, saying he was acting in support of Hamas.

Interviewed on Tuesday by the famous British journalist Piers Morgan, on his Uncensored show on YouTube, Albanese affirmed that “the day Israel was attacked, it had every right to defend itself, to protect its citizens on its territory and to repel the attack by all necessary and proportional measures – which means using force, including deadly force, arresting, and detaining all persons involved and found on its territory – as occurred on October 7, 8 and 9 “.

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But, she continued, “Israel had no right to wage war against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

When Morgan pointed out that Israel “certainly has the right to pursue the 3,000 terrorists who crossed its border, massacred its population and took the hostages to Gaza, because it doesn’t stop at the border,” Albanese responded. that he had to be “very careful with his words, because this logic of ‘an eye for an eye’ could justify the events of October 7.”

“Calling these acts terrorism does not justify the actions taken by Israel since,” she said, before adding that “waging a war” was not a “proportionate” response.

Albanese also told Morgan that she believed the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was too narrow. She believes that the review should cover the entire offensive carried out by Israel beyond its borders.

Albanese is known for her anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Hamas statements.

On October 11, 2023, four days after the pogrom, Albanese expressed doubts about the veracity of reports of rapes and sexual assaults. She said the allegations were being spread by the United States and Israel in an effort to inflame tensions.

In February, Israel’s foreign and interior ministries said Albanese was banned from entering Israel following a tweet she sent to French President Emanuel Macron in which she claimed that “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but because of Israeli oppression.”

More recently, at a meeting at Harvard University, Albanese also claimed that when Hamas talks about killing Jews (the term used being Yahoud), it is not really talking about Jews.

At Morgan’s microphone on Tuesday, Albanese discussed the arrest warrants recently issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and called on Israeli authorities to hand over Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant to international justice.

“If they had nothing to fear, they would go to court. They would simply defend themselves before the ICC. What do they fear if they have done nothing wrong? “, she said.

In response to the pogrom and massacres carried out by Hamas on October 7, marked by acts of extreme brutality, including sexual violence confirmed by a UN investigation, Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza, followed by of a land incursion later in the month. The stated goal was to dismantle Hamas, which controls Gaza, and free the hostages.

The interview was followed by a debate moderated by Piers Morgan, bringing together a panel of four personalities to discuss the topics covered. Alan Dershowitz, American lawyer, and Jonathan Conricus, former IDF spokesperson, defended Israel.

Facing them, British journalist and author Matt Kennard and Katie Halper, host of the podcast A Jew For Ceasefire Now, presented a critical position towards Israel.

Albanese said the ICC mandates were “necessary” and “long overdue,” adding that they were “very relevant.”

“There is overwhelming evidence that starvation was used as a tool of war, which cannot be justified under any circumstances,” Albanese told Morgan.

Dershowitz stressed that the arrest warrants, which prevent Netanyahu from traveling to other countries to “defend Israel’s interests,” are also damaging to the ICC because they were issued inappropriately.

The Court’s main prosecutor, Karim Khan, “should have gone to Israel to examine the two parties involved, but following the accusations of sexual harassment to which he was subjected, he canceled this trip because he wanted issue arrest warrants as quickly as possible,” he explained.

Conricus agreed, calling Khan “shady and questionable” and the process “totally flawed.”

“All conclusions are based on incorrect or incomplete information. It seems to me that there is verified evidence from non-Israeli sources that contradicts these allegations,” he said, although he did not cite specific sources.

Morgan responded by pointing out that the IDF’s refusal to allow foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip to cover the situation prevented the presentation of such evidence and raised suspicion of Israel.

While all four panelists agreed that foreign journalists should be allowed into Gaza, Kennard — who has called Israel a “rogue terrorist regime” but refused to apply that label to Hamas or call its Oct. 7 attack a terrorism — accused Israel of deliberately targeting Palestinian media officials to prevent them from reporting its alleged crimes against humanity, a claim Israel categorically denies.

Conricus also stressed that the main obstacle to reliable coverage of the situation in Gaza was Hamas, which he accused of controlling Palestinian media in the enclave.

“I witnessed it firsthand. Instead of reporting the war crimes committed by Hamas, which are well documented, the journalists on the ground do not cover them, because Hamas prevents them from doing so through repression and censorship measures,” he said. .

Last month, Israel released documents that it said proved that journalists eliminated by the IDF were in the ranks of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an allegation that the Israeli government has repeated regularly since the war began years ago. thirteen months.

Many of the journalists cited worked for the Al-Jazeera channel, based in Qatar, banned and blocked by the Israeli government since last April.

In June, an Israeli court established a direct link between consumption of Al-Jazeera content and terrorist attacks in Israel. The judgment also concluded that there was a “close link” between Al-Jazeera and Hamas, and that some of the channel’s reporters in Gaza had become “collaborators and partners” of Hamas, or had themselves participated in terrorist acts.

Returning to comments made last month in which she urged the UN to consider suspending Israel as a member state, Francesca Albanese also accused Israel of regularly violating international law and insulting representatives and UN organizations more than any other country in the world.

Among the alleged crimes blamed on Israel are the killing of 240 U.N. personnel and attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, according to Albanese’s accusations.

Israel says more than 10 percent of staff at the United Nations Office for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza are linked to terrorist organizations. He also maintains that educational materials used by UNRWA incite hatred of Israel and glorify terrorism.

In February, the IDF revealed the existence of an underground Hamas data center located directly beneath UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and fighters it says are hiding in UNRWA-administered schools.

Israel has also been accused of genocide on several occasions, including in a case brought by South Africa before the ICC.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 42,000 people are believed to have been killed or presumed dead in the fighting so far, although this toll cannot be verified and it does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel claims to have killed around 18,000 terrorists in fighting and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Israel insists it seeks to minimize civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using Gaza civilians as human shields, fighting from populated areas, including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

During the interview, Albanese also said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which she called “settlements,” constituted war crimes. She added “that Israel must end the occupation, because it encourages violence.”

She also criticized the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden, saying the US has given Israel more military, economic, financial and political aid in the past 14 months than at any time in its history. .

“I understand, as a European, why Jews have such a deep connection to Israel. But what I question is the responsibility of a third state. How do Member States react to a State which, for 50 years, has committed genocide, illegally occupied territory and practiced apartheid? “, she said.

Albanese concluded by expressing hope that the new US president, Donald Trump, “steps back from this precipice and does the right thing.”

Dershowitz was optimistic about Trump’s re-election, praising his “toughness on Iran” – a major supporter of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah – which he sees as leverage likely to achieve peace.

“Peace in the region will require the disarmament of Iran,” he said.

Kennard, however, called Trump a “disaster for the Palestinian cause,” saying he “acts in Israel’s interests.”