US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza
The State Department's decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent U.S. pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed.
Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has been vocal about what she has described as the 'genocide' that Israel is waging against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the U.S., which provides military support, have strongly denied that accusation.
In recent weeks, Albanese has issued a series of letters, urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Italian national has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court's indictment against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes. She most recently issued a report naming several U.S. giants among companies aiding what she described as Israel's occupation and war on Gaza.
'Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. 'We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.'
Albanese has been the target of criticism from pro-Israel officials and groups in the U.S. and in the Middle East. Last week, the U.S. mission to the U.N. issued a scathing statement, calling for her removal for 'a years-long pattern of virulent anti-Semitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias.'
The statement said that Albanese's allegations of Israel committing genocide or apartheid are 'false and offensive.'
It is all a culmination of an extraordinary and sprawling campaign of nearly six months by the Trump administration to quell criticism of Israel's handling of the deadly war in Gaza, which is closing in on two years. Earlier this year, the Trump administration began arresting and deporting faculty and students of American universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.
The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.
Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say.
'We must stop this genocide, whose short-term goal is completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, while also profiteering from the killing machine devised to perform it,' Albanese said in a recent post on X. 'No one is safe until everyone is safe.'
___
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US aware of reported death of American after beating by Israeli settlers
By Kanishka Singh and Menna AlaaElDin WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was aware of the reported death of a U.S. citizen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after reports emerged of Israeli settlers fatally beating a Palestinian American. Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing the local health ministry, said Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Musallat, aged in his 20s, died after he was beaten by Israeli settlers on Friday evening in an attack that also injured many people in a town north of Ramallah. Relatives of Musallat, who was from Tampa, Florida, were also quoted by the Washington Post as saying he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers. "We are aware of reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank," a State Department spokesperson said, adding the department had no further comment "out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones" of the reported victim. The Israeli military said Israel was probing the incident in the town of Sinjil. It said rocks were hurled at Israelis near Sinjil and that "a violent confrontation developed in the area". Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the state of Israel in breach of international law, the U.N. human rights office said in March. Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids, has intensified since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in late 2023. Israel's military offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza's health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations and says it is fighting in self-defense after the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israeli killings of U.S. citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. The United Nations' highest court said last year Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
More than 1,000 people laid off at US State Department
More than 1,000 employees of the US State Department have been laid off as part of the Trump administration's efforts to reduce its federal workforce. The involuntary staff reductions included 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service employees, according to a notice sent to State Department employees on Friday and obtained by CBS News, the BBC's US news partner. More than 1,500 other State Department employees took voluntary departures earlier this year as part of the federal government's massive reorganisation effort. Critics have argued the mass cuts will affect the work the department does. CBS News reported that nearly all civil service officers in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration's office of admissions - a programme that resettles refugees in the US - were cut. Individuals who worked for the State Department's Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) office were also among the cuts. Videos shared on social media show civil service members in the lobby of the department, leaving the building with their belongings. Other employees are seen applauding former colleagues and hugging one another. Outside the building protesters gathered with signs that read "Thank you to Americas diplomats" and "We all deserve better". "It's not a consequence of trying to get rid of people," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said while in Malaysia on Thursday. "But if you close the bureau, you don't need those positions. Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people." Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a statement saying the "decision to fire hundreds of members of the Civil Service and Foreign Service at the Department of State undermines our national security". "While there are targeted reforms that our government can pursue to maximize the impact of every tax dollar, that's not what this is," the senators wrote. "Blanket and indiscriminate cuts - the legacy from Elon Musk's failed DOGE effort - weaken our government's ability to deliver for the American people in a cost-effective manner." The layoffs come just days after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration's plan to slash the sized of the federal workforce could move forward. Earlier this year, in a letter notifying Congress of the department's intention to reduce its workforce by 18% through voluntary departures and layoff, the department said it had more than 18,700 US-based employees. The cuts to the workforce originate from a campaign promise from President Donald Trump cut government spending. Earlier this month, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) officially closed its doors, at the directive of the Trump administration. More than 80% of all the agency's programmes were cancelled as of March, and on 1 July the remainder were formally absorbed by the state department. Trump administration proposes State Department cuts in major overhaul Trump's mass firings to remain on hold, appeals court rules USAID officially closes, attracting condemnation from Obama and Bush


Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
US sanctions Cuban President Diaz-Canel and other officials for human rights violations
HAVANA — The United States government announced Friday it was sanctioning Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other top officials for human rights violations and restricting access to visas on the anniversary of the biggest protests on the island in recent decades. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media platform X that the State Department also would impose visa restrictions on Cuban judicial and prison officials 'responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention and torture of the July 2021 protesters.'