UN's Gaza investigator Francesca Albanese slams Trump, calls US sanctions 'sign of guilt'

While reacting to the sanctions imposed against her, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, said that the move by the US President Donald Trump’s administration is a ‘sign of guilt’. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Albanese said: “The powerful punishing those who speak for the powerless, it is not a sign of strength, but of guilt”.

The remarks from the UN official came after the US State Department sanctioned her over her efforts in Gaza. It is pertinent to note that Albanese is an independent official tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has often condemned Israel’s conduct throughout the 21-month war in Gaza.

In a post on Thursday, Albanese urged the international community “to stand tall, together” and called for the international observers to focus on the crisis inside Gaza. “All eyes must remain on Gaza, where children are dying of starvation in their mothers’ arms, while their fathers and siblings are bombed into pieces while searching for food,” she wrote.

‘It looks like I have hit a nerve’: Albanese

While speaking to the Middle East Eye, Albanese hit back at the Trump administration. “It looks like I’ve hit a nerve,” she remarked. “My concern is people are dying in Gaza while you and I are speaking, and the United Nations is totally unable to intervene.”

The Human Rights lawyer has been extremely vocal about calling for the end of what she described as the “genocide” that Israel is waging against Palestinians in Gaza. Meanwhile, both Israel and the United States have denied accusations hurled by Albanese.

It is pertinent to note that Israel has been facing accusations of committing genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and war crimes allegations at the International Criminal Court (ICC) . While speaking on the matter, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasised that the sanctions against Albania set a dangerous precedent.

However, he made it clear that the special rapporteurs did not report to him and he had no authority over them. Meanwhile, Jürg Lauber, the UN human rights council president, said he regretted Washington’s decision and called on all UN member states “to fully cooperate with the special rapporteurs and mandate holders of the council and to refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal against them”.

The UN rights chief, Volker Türk , also called for a halt to “attacks and threats” against people appointed by the UN and other international institutions such as the ICC. It is pertinent to note that the judges of the international tribunal have also been hit with American sanctions.

How Albanese is making Israel uncomfortable

In recent weeks, the UN rapporteur has issued a series of letters urging nations around the world to put pressure on Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Italian national has also been an ardent supporter of the ICC’s indictment against Israeli leaders, including the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes.

Recently, she issued a report naming what she described as Israel’s occupation and war on Gaza. On Wednesday, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio , announced the move against Albanese on social media. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” Rubio said in a statement.

“We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defence,” he furthered. The Secretary of State also announced that Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work that had prompted what he described as illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the ICC.

Albanese has often been the target of criticism from pro-Israel officials and groups in the US and the Middle East. Last week, the US mission to the UN issued a scathing statement calling for her removal for “a years-long pattern of virulent antisemitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias”. The statement went on to argue that Albanese’s allegations of Israel committing genocide or apartheid were “false and offensive”.