UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, lambasted the Israeli army on Saturday, as more of its abuses against children and other civilians became public.
In a post on social media platform X, Albanese wrote: "I have seen enough to say it with absolute certainty: The Israeli army is the most depraved army".
The remark comes in response to video footage which shows an Israeli soldier assaulting a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank town of al-Yagheer during a raid.
The video shows a soldier grabbing the child with force, causing visible pain, before taking him away. Two other soldiers appear to be holding another Palestinian child in front of an armoured vehicle in the video.
Albanese, a human rights expert on the Middle East and legal scholar, has been outspoken on Israel’s crimes in the West Bank and in Gaza , where over 72,000 people have been killed by Israel's genocidal war.
She has called for the UN to suspend Israel as a member state due to its war on Gaza, noting that no other country had defied so many UN resolutions for so long.
She is also the first person with a UN title to label the war as a genocide, a description backed by international rights groups.
Albanese regularly documents Israeli crimes and raises awareness on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza caused by Israeli restrictions on aid and over two years of heavy bombardment, which has displaced over 90 percent of the enclave’s population.
Earlier this week, Albanese said she has faced many repercussions as a result of speaking out against Israeli crimes against Palestinians, including her and her family receiving threats.
The UN official has also been designated as a "specially designated national" by the Trump administration, a category that is usually reserved for terrorists, dictators and drug traffickers.
The US imposed sanctions on Albanese due to her support for the International Criminal Court decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims she has "spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West".
Albanese however has doubled down on her stance, stating she will continue to support justice for Palestinians.
She says she has been sanctioned without trial or the possibility of defending herself.
In an interview with The Guardian earlier this week, she says due to the Trump executive order to sanction her, the apartment she had in Washington has been seized, she can no longer use a credit card anywhere in the world, and there is a ban on any American person or entity providing her with "funds, goods or services".
She has described the crackdown as "civil death" and says she has resorted to having people help her with cash.
While Albanese has faced harsh consequences as a result of being outspoken about Israel’s discriminatory policies against Palestinians, including the seizure of land and arbitrary arrests, her popularity has grown among activists, researchers, and human rights defenders.