On October 22, 2025, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, released a searing report titled Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime. The document, presented to the UN General Assembly, pulls no punches: it accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and casts a harsh spotlight on the international community’s complicity—military, economic, diplomatic, and even humanitarian—in enabling the ongoing destruction of Palestinian life.
Albanese’s findings, echoed by UN investigators and major human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, are unequivocal. "What is happening in Gaza is not a war but a genocide, as there is a clear intent to annihilate a people," she stated, according to Agence France-Presse. The numbers are staggering: as of October 2025, more than 68,200 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, at least 68 more have died and 328 have been injured, with Gaza’s media office alleging over 47 ceasefire violations by Israeli forces.
The report doesn’t stop at Israel’s actions. Instead, it meticulously outlines how states around the world have, through both action and omission, enabled what Albanese calls a "collective international crime." The United States and European Union lead the list, accused of shielding Israel from accountability by vetoing or diluting UN Security Council resolutions demanding ceasefires. Albanese writes, "Diplomatically, Western powers, led by the United States and the European Union, have consistently shielded the Israeli regime from accountability." The framing of Israel’s military actions as "legitimate self-defense" has, in her view, served to justify ongoing violence.
Military aid is at the core of this complicity. The United States provides Israel with $3.3 billion annually in military assistance, alongside intelligence, weapons, and logistical support. This support only intensified after October 2023, with hundreds of additional consignments of munitions and military assets sent to Israel. Germany, the UK, India, Italy, France, Spain, and others have also supplied arms and dual-use technologies, fueling the military strikes on Gaza. According to Albanese, "These transfers violate the Arms Trade Treaty given the regime’s ongoing occupation and assaults on civilians."
Economic partnerships and trade agreements further entrench Israel’s military capacity. At least 45 active trade and cooperation agreements—including with the US, EU, and UAE—allow Israel access to dual-use and military equipment. European research programs have poured billions into Israeli institutions, often funding technology with direct military applications. Trade with Israel actually increased in 2024, with Germany adding $836 million, Poland $237 million, Greece $186 million, and even the UAE and Egypt contributing $237 million and $199 million, respectively.
Turkey’s role, detailed in the report and covered by Turkish and international media, illustrates the complexity of international involvement. Despite downgrading diplomatic ties and announcing a trade embargo in May 2024, Turkey continued oil shipments to Israel, often routed through third countries or misrecorded as destined for Palestinian territories. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, for which Turkey collects $1.27 per barrel, supplies around 40 percent of Israel’s annual crude oil consumption. Activists documented at least 10 crude shipments from Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal to Israel in 2024, most after the embargo announcement. The report notes that "Turkey’s 1996 free trade agreement with Israel conditions cooperation on respect of public policy, morality, international peace, and security," a clause that, in theory, enables Ankara to halt trade in light of Israeli actions in Gaza. Yet, enforcement has been spotty, with activists and international campaigns demanding genuine action rather than symbolic gestures.
Humanitarian aid—often seen as a lifeline—has, according to Albanese, been weaponized. Gaza’s blockade, which intensified after October 2023, left 80 percent of its population of over two million dependent on aid. Yet, by early 2025, access was restricted to just over 100 trucks daily. The report singles out the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a militarized aid mechanism created by Israel and the US, for special criticism. Between March and July 2025, more than 2,000 civilians died at distribution points. Symbolic gestures from countries like Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Jordan, and the UK did little to alleviate the famine, with Albanese remarking that these efforts "effectively implicate them in the worsening humanitarian crisis."
The legal and moral obligations, Albanese insists, are clear: "States must prevent further harm, suspend enabling support, prosecute perpetrators, and ensure reparations and reconstruction. Without this, international law is hollow, and Palestinians are left to suffer." Her report urges all states to implement a comprehensive arms and trade embargo against Israel, suspend diplomatic relations until compliance with international law, and hold corporations accountable for aiding or financing the war effort.
The report’s conclusions are supported by a growing chorus of legal and human rights bodies. Since October 2023, UN experts, rights groups, and courts have warned that Israel’s siege, bombardment, and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza meet the definition of genocide. The International Court of Justice has issued three sets of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocide, allow aid, and halt operations in Rafah. In December 2024, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both concluded that Israel was committing genocide. Israeli groups such as B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have documented systematic attacks on hospitals and denial of medical aid, reinforcing the charge. On August 31, 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution declaring Israeli actions meet the legal definition of genocide. A UN Commission of Inquiry reached the same conclusion on September 16, 2025, citing killings, conditions calculated to bring about destruction, and statements by senior Israeli officials.
Recent diplomatic initiatives, such as the 20-point peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, have come under fire for failing to guarantee Palestinian self-determination or accountability for war crimes. An agreement between Gaza’s Hamas resistance movement and Israel was reached earlier this month as part of Trump’s proposal, but Israeli forces have repeatedly violated the deal. Only 15 percent of the agreed-upon aid trucks have reached starving Palestinians. Albanese criticized the proposal for omitting any requirement to end the occupation or establish accountability, instead imposing "a temporary external governance structure over Gaza, an arrangement amounting to neo-colonial administration that further undermines Palestinian self-determination."
Albanese, who has been under US sanctions since July 2025 due to her outspoken criticism of Israel, is scheduled to present her new report to the United Nations in the coming days. In the initial version of the report published on the UN website, she described Western support for Israel’s war on Gaza as "the culmination of a long history of Western complicity." According to Common Dreams, Albanese emphasized that "all nations with ties to Israel are responsible in some measure for the Gaza genocide."
The report’s stark warning is hard to ignore: "The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime," it states, adding that global peace and security now rest "on a knife-edge between the collapse of international law and hope for renewal." Without foreign support, Albanese argues, "the prolonged unlawful Israeli occupation, which has now escalated into a full-fledged genocide, could not have been sustained."
As the world watches, the question remains: will the international community continue to prioritize strategic interests, or will it heed Albanese’s call to action and restore the integrity of international law? The fate of Gaza—and perhaps the credibility of the global order itself—hangs in the balance.