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The The United Nations added Israel to the global list of countries and armed groups that have committed violations against children, according to the country’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan.
The news of Israel’s inclusion on the list follows eight months of war on Gaza, in which more than 13,000 children believed to be among the 36,500 killed and comes a day after Israel’s bombing of a UN school in central Gazawhich killed more than 40 Palestinians, some of them children.
According to human rights officials, Hamas also named in the report on the killing and kidnapping of children in the October 7 attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis.
Erdan said he was “shocked and disgusted” by the “shameful” inclusion decision Israel on this year’s list, which is part of a report on children and armed conflict due to be presented to the UN Security Council next Friday.
The report covers murder, mutilation, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of access to help and referral to schools and hospitals.
The report was compiled by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba. The list attached to the report is broadly designed to name and shame parties in conflict in the hope of deterring violence against children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying the UN “has added itself to the blacklist of history when it joins those who support Hamas murderers”.
Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, warned that the decision would have an impact on his country’s already strained relationship with the United Nations. It refuses to work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), the main organization channeling aid to Palestinian refugees in GazaThe West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
There are claims by UN officials that Israel has been excluded from the list of offenders in previous years after political pressure by Israeli officials.
“There have been several years now where there have been confirmed violations by Israeli government forces and by Palestinian armed groups, but they have never been listed,” Ezekiel Hefes, director of the human rights group Watchlist on children and armed conflicts.
Hefes said that once a country or group is cited in a UN report for violations, the UN should engage with countries and “those countries take actions that can serve to prevent future violations.”
The UN has held discussions in previous years with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups, trying to persuade them to reduce harm to children, he added.
“This is a big deal because this is a framework that was created to protect children from the effects of armed conflict,” Hefes said.
Erdan said he was informed of the decision by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ chief of staff and gave his response in a video on social media.
“I am completely shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the Secretary General,” Erdan said. “Israel’s army is the most moral army in the world, so this immoral decision will only help terrorists and reward Hamas.
There was no immediate comment from Guterres’ office on the list.
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