UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Thursday submitted to the Security Council a "black list" of countries and organizations that cause harm to children in conflict areas including Israel. But while past reports dealing with Israel were around two pages long, this time, seven pages were dedicated to the accusations leveled for the first time at a democracy.
" “I am appalled by the dramatic increase and unprecedented scale and intensity of grave violations against children in the Gaza Strip, Israel and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," Guterres said of the report that claims "the conflict in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories has led to a 155% increase of grave violations against children."
The report also claimed that "while more than half of the violations were committed by non-State armed groups, including those designated as terrorist by the UN, government forces were the main perpetrators of killings and injuries, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access."
In the report, the UN said it had verified 8,009 serious violations perpetrated against 4,360 children, with 5,698 of them carried out by Israeli security forces, 116 by Hamas, 21 by the Islamic Jihad and one by the Palestinian Authority. The report also noted 51 cases of violations by West Bank settlers, 13 by non-affiliated Palestinians and 58 by unknown perpetrators. There were 2051 cases that had not been verified.
The report cites sexual violence perpetrated against Israelis including children in the context of the Hamas massacre of October 7 adding that Hamas and the other armed Palestinian factions carried out 17 verified attacks on schools, hospitals, health care institutions and ambulances on Israeli territory and confirmed that the terror groups have made use of schools in the Gaza Strip.
There were 27 verified cases of injury to children in Israel, the West bank and east Jerusalem, in the report and 13 cases of injury on October 7, as the result of gunfire and arson. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem and in northern Israel children were hurt as the result of rocket attacks, stabbings and stone-throwing. The report noted that there were additional cases awaiting verification after some 3,900 Israeli children were recognized as having been disabled.
The UN verified 7,873 cases of violations against 4,247 Palestinian children in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, carried out for Israeli forces and settlers as well as unknown Islamic jihad perpetrators. Israeli forces used Palestinian children five times during their actions and in three cases, attempted to enlist children as informers.
The report claimed 2,267 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli security forces, based on data collected in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and 906 Palestinian children were detained for security related offenses, including nine girls.
Israel reported to the UN that 49 Palestinians under the age of 18 were held in administrative detention and the UN said it had received testimony from 84 children who said they were abused when detained. The UN also claimed it had received reports of children suffering from sexual violence during their detention in Gaza.
The report notes that 36 Israeli children were abducted from their homes by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and were subject to torture in Gaza. Without mentioning by name the report said two children were still held captive and were prevented humanitarian assistance.
Israel's ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan slammed Guterres and the report . "I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision," Erdan said in a statement. "The only one who is blacklisted today is the secretary-general."