Israel needs to get out of Gaza, says UN expert in Cannes

Cannes: UN expert Francesca Albanese at the Cannes Festival called for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza completely instead of allowing aid to trickly into the war-torn territory.

“They must lift the blockade,” the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories said.

The Israeli defence ministry said 107 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday, whereas the United Nations used to bring in 500 to 600 lorry-loads per day on average during a six-week ceasefire that broke down in March.

But Albanese said even that amount would not be enough, after UN agencies warned a two-month siege had left its population of more than two million people on the brink of famine.

“Even if we return now to the 500 trucks per day… it wouldn’t be sufficient because there are no stocks and the people in Gaza have nothing,” she told AFP on the sidelines of the Cannes festival.

“Israel needs to get out of Gaza,” she added.

The Gaza war has cast a shadow over the Cannes festival on the French Riviera, especially after the killing last month of the main character of a film that premiered in one of its parallel sections.

An Israeli strike on April 16 killed Fatima “Fatem” Hassouna, a 25-year-old photojournalist, just weeks before exiled Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi screened “Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk”.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Hassouna is one of more than 200 journalists killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 2023.

 

– ‘Truth tellers’ –

Albanese said the Cannes film festival felt like a “bubble of indifference” but she said she decided to join a press conference organised by Farsi to honour Palestinian journalists.

With Israel banning international media from entering Gaza, “they are the truth tellers, they are the ones who have been telling the genocide from within”, Albanese said.

Amnesty International last month said Israel was carrying out a “live-streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza, claims Israel dismissed as “blatant lies”.

Hassouna’s death has galvanised members of the cinema industry, with France’s Catherine Deneuve on Friday joining over 900 actors and filmmakers in signing an open letter denouncing “genocide” in Gaza, organisers told AFP.

The petition began circulating during the buildup to the festival and had garnered around 380 names including “Schindler’s List” star Ralph Fiennes when the event kicked off on May 13.

An update issued by organisers Friday included more than 900 names, including Deneuve and British director Danny Boyle.

“As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” the open letter says.

Other signatories include Juliette Binoche, who is chairing the jury for the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize, US indie director Jim Jarmusch, “Lupin” star Omar Sy, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is in Cannes to promote a documentary about his life, has also signed the letter, organisers said Friday.

He posed for photographers on Tuesday with a T-shirt bearing the names of killed Gaza children.

On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.