UN to declare Israel, Hamas of violating children’s rights

The inclusion of Israel this month will likely just put more of a global spotlight on the country's conduct of the war in Gaza

United Nations: The UN secretary-General will tell the Security Council next week that both Israel and Hamas are violating children’s rights and leaving them exposed to danger in their war to eliminate each other.

The secretary-general annually makes a global list of states and militias that are menacing children and threatening them.

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Parties on the list have ranged from the Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar to — last year — Russia during its war with Ukraine. Now Israel is set to join them.

Antonio Guterres sends the list to the Security Council and the council can then decide whether to take action. The United States is one of five veto-wielding permanent council members and has been reluctant to act against Israel, its longtime ally.

Another permanent member is Russia and when the United Nations put Russian forces on its blacklist last year for killing boys and girls and attacking schools and hospitals in Ukraine, the council took no action.

The inclusion of Israel this month will likely just put more of a global spotlight on the country’s conduct of the war in Gaza and increase already high tensions in its relationship with the global body.

The preface of last year’s UN report says it lists parties engaged in “the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons.”

The head of Guterres’ office called Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be in the report when it is sent to the council next week, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Friday. The militant Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups also will be listed.

Israel reacted with outrage, sending news organisations a video of Erdan berating the head of Guterres’ office — who was supposedly on the other end of a phone call — and posting it on X.

“Hamas will continue even more to use schools and hospitals because this shameful decision of the secretary-general will only give Hamas hope to survive and extend the war and extend the suffering,” Erdan wrote in a statement.

“Shame on him!” The Palestinian UN ambassador said that adding Israel to the “list of ‘shame,’ will not bring back tens of thousands of our children who were killed by Israel over decades.” “But it is an important step in the right direction,” Riyad Mansour wrote in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the UN put itself on the black list of history today” as the move heightened the long-running feud between Israel and the UN and even the routine mechanics of Israel’s dealings with the world body are now fraught with tensions.

The normally equanimous secretary-general’s spokesman broke from the good-natured tone of his noon briefing when asked to discuss the latest development.

UN agencies warned Wednesday that over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by the middle of next month if hostilities continue.