When the United Nations releases its annual report on children and armed conflict, it will include Israel and Hamas on the list of countries and armed organizations that harm children on the grounds that the Gaza war has caused serious casualties to minors, including killing and maiming the United Nations And hunger, officials said.
U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the agency’s chief of staff called Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be included on the list this year. Dujarric said: “This call is a courtesy response to the countries newly added to the list. The purpose is to let countries understand and avoid leaks.”
U.N. officials said Hamas, the armed group that led Gaza before the war, would be named in the report because its fighters kidnapped and killed Israeli children in an attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Armed groups that harm children in conflicts, such as the Taliban and Boko Haram, often appear in annual reports.
News of Israel’s inclusion on the list further exacerbated already deteriorating relations between Israel and the United Nations.
Erdan called the move “an immoral decision that promotes terrorism and rewards terrorists.” He recorded video of the call and posted parts of it on social media site X.
UN spokesman Mr Dujarric said the release of the phone recordings was “shocking and unacceptable, something I have never seen in my 25 years of service to the organization”.
The United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict prepares annual reports in accordance with mandates from the General Assembly and the Security Council. Mr Dujarric said the report would be presented to council members next Friday and released publicly on June 18. The Security Council will hold a public debate on the report’s findings later this month.
During the Hamas terror attack on October 7, armed men abducted children, some of them toddlers and infants, and held them hostage in Gaza. Some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed, including children.
Gaza health officials say Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign and ground war in Gaza have killed at least 36,000 people, a large number of them women and children. Children in Gaza also face famine and starvation as Israel restricts humanitarian aid, the United Nations says. Many children also lost limbs or were seriously injured in other ways.
Majed Bamya, deputy Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, posted on announced weekly).
