The UN said Israel is to be included in the annual list of countries that fail to protect children in times of war. Hamas and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad also appear on the list.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres added the Israeli military to a global list of perpetrators of violations against children, according to his spokesperson on Friday. Israel received word that it is on the list of the secretary-general’s annual report on children in armed conflict, which will be sent to the UN Security Council next Friday, Stéphane Dujarric told a press briefing.
In addition to the Israel Defence Forces, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad added to the list. The UN report highlights human rights violations against children in some 20 conflict zones. It covers things like killing, maiming, sexual violence, abductions, denial of access to aid and attacks on schools and hospitals.
The annual report will go to the Security Council on 14 June. The official report comes out on 18 June. The report goes to a Council debate on 26 June.
Israeli response
Israel responded immediately. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, recorded a video of himself making a phone call from his office to what appears to be a UN official and published part of it on social media. In the video, Erdan expressed outrage at the UN decision. He stated:
I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision. The IDF is the most moral army in the world. The only one who is blacklisted today is the secretary-general, whose decisions since the war started, and even before, are rewarding terrorists and incentivizing them to use children for terror acts… Shame on him!
In addition to publishing the conversation with the UN official, Israeli public broadcaster KAN highlighted that Israel is considering additional measures in response to the UN action, including cutting ties with UN Secretary-General. On Friday, for instance, a senior Israeli official recommended that the government classify the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as a “terrorist organisation.”
Israel’s listing comes after eight months of war in the Gaza Strip, which began after a Hamas attack on 7 October last year. The Israeli counter-offensive has since killed more than 36,700 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children (15,500), and injured more than 83,500, according to local health authorities.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN said that adding Israel to the list “will not bring back tens of thousands of our children who were killed by Israel over decades and will not restore normal life for the children who were permanently disabled by its actions.”
Despite, he underscored: “But it is an important step in the right direction towards ending the double standards and the culture of impunity Israel has enjoyed for far too long and that left our children vulnerable.”
Israel and the United Nations
Israel’s inclusion on the list of shame and the Israel-Hamas war have brought relations between Israel and the UN to an all-time low, with Israeli diplomats using their platforms at the UN to condemn the world body.
Relations have grown particularly tense as dozens of UN staff members are dead since the start of the conflict in Gaza Strip, the largest loss of life in the history of the world organisation. UNRWA has called for an investigation into all violations of UN actions in the Gaza Strip. But Israel also accuses UNRWA of anti-Israel incitement, which UNRWA has repeatedly denied.
Israel is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operations in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians sought refuge from war before the 6 May offensive.
Despite, Israel has continued its brutal offensive in Rafah. According to Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal, an Israeli warplane struck the UN-run Asma school in the al-Shati refugee camp on Friday.
