The crisis sparked by the Hamas terrorist attack and ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip is a 'political and humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions' said the UN's independent human rights expert for the Occupied Palestinian Territory this week.

In an interview with UN News, UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert Francesca Albanese, said it was 'impossible to describe the pain and suffering that Israelis are going through because of what happened to them...because there are not only those who were killed, those who were taken hostage, but there is an entire population that was completely shaken'.