Doha: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, warned Monday that the Palestinians face a real danger of being exposed to mass ethnic cleansing in the wake of Israel’s long-term plan to seize the Palestinian territories and depopulate them.

According to Qatar News Agency, Albanese added that the ethnic cleansing entails acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, or even genocide, stressing that the West Bank has faced the worst attack since the second uprising which was characterized by airstrikes, armored bulldozers, demolition of homes, in addition to destruction of villages, and critical infrastructure, including agricultural lands.

She highlighted that Israel’s behavior is tantamount to a genocidal campaign to efface the Palestinians as a people, adding that the international community must uphold its obligations to protect them from extinction.

Albanese stressed that the only way to do so is to enforce the advisory opinion rendered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which acknowledged the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.

She added that the opinion called for the termination of Israeli presence without conditions, and imposed binding temporary measures on Israel to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza.