Rome, 29 May (LaPresse) – ‘In Israeli prisons, torture is not the exception for Palestinians: it is a systemic practice that has accompanied the occupation of Palestine for decades.’ This was stated by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, speaking in the Senate’s Sala Caduti di Nassirya during the presentation of her latest report. “From October 2023 onwards, this violence has reached a new level of brutality, intensity and systematic nature, becoming an integral part of a broader genocidal project. It is deliberate collective punishment,‘ said Albanese, ’it is a strategy aimed at degrading the bodies of detainees, breaking them psychologically and destroying the social fabric of entire communities, to the point of forcing them to abandon what remains of their land." Albanese also reported that “almost 20,000 Palestinians have been arrested since October 2023, including 1,500 children”, and “9,000 Palestinians remain in detention, many without charge or trial”.