Albanese urges ICC arrest warrants for Israeli ministers over torture of Palestinians
The UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to pursue arrest warrants for three Israeli ministers she accuses of being responsible for “systematic torture” amounting to genocide.
In a new report presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, Albanese names National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz as the primary political figures involved in shaping policies that enabled the torture of Palestinians after 7 October 2023.
Last year, Middle East Eye reported that the ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had prepared arrest warrant applications against Ben Gvir and Smotrich on apartheid charges before he went on leave in May. But the warrants have yet to be filed by the deputy prosecutors, who are in charge of Khan's office in his absence, due to the ongoing threat of US sanctions.
“While the dehumanisation of the Palestinians predates the appointments of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz in the government, these politicians now preside over, and give political direction to, the policies behind the present report’s findings,” Albanese says in her report.
“Any credible pursuit of justice must confront torture not as an isolated crime, but as a foundational pillar of a genocidal project aimed at the complete erasure - physical and psychological destruction, displacement and replacement - of the Palestinian people.”
Albanese's report says that both custodial practices inside prisons and detention centres and broader conditions imposed on Palestinians since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023 amount to forms of torture under international law.
The report concludes that these acts meet the legal threshold for genocide, particularly under provisions relating to the infliction of serious bodily or mental harm on a protected group.
'Weaponising death'
The report adds that Israeli authorities have created a “torturous environment” across the occupied territories.
This extends beyond detention facilities to include widespread displacement, destruction of infrastructure, denial of humanitarian aid, and pervasive surveillance. The cumulative impact of these measures, the report argues, results in severe physical and psychological suffering across the Palestinian population.
Thousands of Palestinians have been detained since October 2023, with many held without charge and others subjected to enforced disappearance.
Between October 2023 and February 2026, 18,500 people were detained, including at least 1,500 children. Around 9,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli detention, often without charge or trial, while 4,000 have been subjected to enforced disappearance, and remain unaccounted for, the report says.
Conditions described in detention include severe beatings, bone breaking, prolonged handcuffing and blindfolding, starvation, sleep deprivation and denial of medical care. The report also refers to widespread policies of sexual violence, including rape, against children, women and men.
Albanese's report adds that Israel is responsible for a sharp rise in the deaths of Palestinians in detention since October 2023. It estimates that between 84 and 94 detainees have died in custody, noting that the true number may be higher due to lack of transparency, enforced disappearances and Israel’s failure to disclose information about detainees’ whereabouts or identities.
The report also states that authorities have withheld dead bodies in some cases, “weaponising death to prolong families’ suffering”.
“These practices are designed to inflict harm and obliterate once and for all the Palestinian right to self-determination, eroding the possibility of political, cultural and territorial continuity,” the report concludes.
“There can be no doubt that this constitutes both the infliction of serious bodily and mental harm under article II (b) of the Genocide Convention and intentional, collective torture.”
Albanese was sanctioned in July by the United States in connection with her work investigating genocide in Gaza and her engagement with the ICC as part of her mandate. The sanctions effectively barred her from travelling to the US and froze her assets there.
She told MEE that the sanctions have also cut her off from the global financial system, including by blocking her ability to carry out regular daily transactions.
Last month, her family sued the Trump administration over the sanctions.
As part of her mandate, Albanese has issued three other reports since October 2023 labelling Israel's war on Gaza as a genocide and denouncing the global economic and political systems that have supported it.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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