An independent UN expert warned Monday that Israel’s "genocidal violence” in Gaza risked spreading to other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory amid a large-scale military operation in the West Bank.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement that Israel’s recent intensification of its operations in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory, marked "a dangerous escalation”.

"Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole,” she said.

"The long-standing impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinisation of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group,” she added.

She called on the international community to "do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability and ultimately end Israel’s colonisation of Palestinian territory.”