UN Special Rapporteur Says Gaza Explosions Equivalent to Six Nuclear Bombs
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, has warned that the intensity of explosive force used in the Gaza Strip has reached a level she estimates is equivalent to the power of “six nuclear bombs” — a situation she says has deepened the humanitarian crisis amid the continuing blockade and bombardment.
Albanese, speaking from Tunisia’s capital on the third anniversary of the Gaza war, said Palestinians under siege are facing “slow death” as a result of continued attacks, the spread of disease, malnutrition and the collapse of the health system, and that in many areas there is no access to safe shelter.
She added that the scale of destruction in Gaza is “beyond description,” with successive airstrikes causing widespread damage to residential areas and infrastructure, while the attacks, she said, are still continuing.
According to data from Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli army has dropped about 223,000 tonnes of explosives on the enclave during the years of war. The same figures claim the attacks have killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, injured about 157,000 others and left thousands missing.
The UN special rapporteur said warnings she had issued months and years earlier about the consequences of developments in Gaza have now become a daily reality for Palestinians, and that the situation is deteriorating as vital infrastructure is reduced, disease spreads and malnutrition widens. She also stressed that the health sector is in a state of collapse and that humanitarian aid is not entering in sufficient quantities to meet growing needs.
Referring to the situation of the displaced, Albanese said Palestinians have been forced to move from large areas in northern and southern Gaza, while the city of Rafah has been almost completely destroyed and about 1.8 million Palestinians are concentrated in an area smaller than 30% of the entire Gaza Strip.
In another part of her remarks, she said the lack of effective international support is the main obstacle to pursuing Israeli violations, adding that US pressure led countries including Senegal and Colombia to leave the “Hague Group,” which was formed to coordinate governments’ efforts to confront Israel’s violations of international law.
The UN official said confronting the US has become harder in a governmental environment that she said operates on a “logic of revenge,” although protests and public mobilisation continue in various parts of the world to condemn the Gaza war.
Albanese has previously warned about the “genocide of Gaza’s residents” and said she had faced intense pressure to force her to resign from her post at the UN because of her positions and reports on Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
