THE United Nations (UN) has added the Israeli military to the list of offenders violating children’s rights in the world.
A report by CNN stated that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed this on Friday, June 7.
The list is included in Guterres’ annual report on children in armed conflict, which will be sent to the UN Security Council on Friday, June 14.
CNN also reported that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were also included on the list.
Reacting to the development, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan expressed outrage and described it as shameful.
“The only one who is blacklisted today is the secretary-general, whose decisions since the war started, and even before, are rewarding terrorists and incentivising them to use children for terror acts… Shame on him!” Erdan said.
Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, also reacted to the development.
Mansour said though the decision would not restore normalcy to the lives of children permanently disabled by the actions of the Israeli military, it is the right step.
“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 to its consequences,” he said.
The development comes eight months after a war began between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Southern Israel during a major Jewish holiday, killing over a thousand people.
The retaliation by Israel had resulted in a bloody bombardment of Gaza, blocking all fuel, electricity, telecommunication, internet services, food and other essential supplies into the area as part of its war strategies, disregarding warnings by humanitarian agencies of the adverse effect of this tactic.
Many women, children and health workers were killed during raids that have affected hospitals and schools.
Earlier calls to Israel for a ceasefire went unheeded and the United States of America has also been one of Israel’s strongest allies on this stance, but proposing a humanitarian pause instead.
In November 2023, Israel and Hamas reached a truce to observe a pause, but fighting resumed again in December 2023.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.