Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, has described the inability of the UN’s 192 member states to prevent Israel’s offensive in Gaza as “an utter disgrace”.

According to Al Jazeera, the UN expert made the statement in a repost on social media of a video interview in which she said “what’s happening in Gaza is the shame of the century”.

“Gaza has been erased. There is almost nothing left other than the despair of the people who continue to perish there,” Albanese said.

“Look at the acts of torture. Look at who is being killed: Doctors, nurses, students, mothers, children — 17,000 children. To look at what the soldiers have done and said, and then have the courage to say that this is not genocide.

“This genocide would have not been possible without the shocking, shocking cover-up by the media,” the rights expert was quoted as saying.