A UN expert warned Monday that large-scale rubble removal in parts of Gaza under Israeli control risked erasing traces of "atrocity crimes", and preventing the recovery and identification of human remains.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, warned in a statement that the implications of Israel's "ongoing removal, crushing and relocation of rubble in Gaza" were "profound".
"Gaza's rubble contains human remains and physical evidence relevant to the investigation of alleged international crimes, including genocide," she said, pointing to estimates from Palestinian authorities that more than 10,000 people remain buried under the debris in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.
The Italian-born independent expert has faced harsh criticism from Israel and some of its allies over her long-standing accusations that Israel is committing genocide and other war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Albanese, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said she had received credible information from multiple sources last month of "deliberate and widespread removal, crushing and transport of rubble".
In the devastated, Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, "rubble is not just construction waste", the expert insisted.
"It is part of a crime scene, a graveyard, and the material record of what happened during a brutal and senseless bombing campaign that lasted two years."
- 'Illegal' -
Israel's full-scale war on Gaza -- which began after a Hamas attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023 -- reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble.
The relentless Israeli bombardment and ground offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,330 since a ceasefire agreed last October, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is under Hamas authority.
Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Many of the Palestinians killed in Gaza are children.
Albanese insisted on Monday that the possibility of recovering human remains in Gaza was far from theoretical.
She pointing to the burial last month of 112 members of one extended civilian family whose remains were recovered from under Gaza City buildings destroyed by Israel in November 2023.
"The remains of 41 others killed in the same strike were never located," her statement said.
"It is vital that before decisions are made on displacement or crushing by the occupying army or its allies, the recovery and dignified identification of human remains, systematic documentation of sites and materials, preservation of potentially relevant evidence, and an unbroken chain of custody under independent oversight must take place," Albanese said.
The expert called for international criminal investigators to oversee the evidence gathering, and to warn countries and companies involved in any removal that they "could incur international criminal responsibility" if they destroyed evidence of international crimes.
"Destroying evidence of atrocity crimes is illegal," she stressed.
"It is unacceptable that the reconstruction of Gaza is conditioned upon the erasure of its past and the evidence required to secure justice for its victims."
Israel did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Albanese's statement.
The United States, a major ally of Israel, imposed sanctions on Albanese after she criticised Washington's policy on Gaza.
