New York: The UN secretary-general António Guterres has said that Israel and Hamas are violating children’s rights and leaving them exposed to danger in their war to eliminate each other. The UN chief will make the disclosure in the next meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
The UN chief annually makes an international list of nations and militias that are threatening children. Parties on the list have ranged from the Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar to — last year — Russia during its war with Kyiv. According to AP, now Israel is set to join these countries.
The UN secretary-general sends the list to the UNSC and the council can then decide whether to take action. The US is one of five veto-wielding permanent council members and has been unwilling to act against Israel, its longtime partner.
Another permanent member is Russia and when the UN put Russian troops on its blacklist last year for killing girls and boys and hospitals and attacking schools in Ukraine, the UNSC took no action.
The inclusion of Israel this month will likely just put more of international spotlight on the its conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip and also increase already high tensions in its ties with the UN.
The head of Guterres’ office called Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be in the report when it is sent to the UNSC next week, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups also will also be included in the list.
The Palestinian UN envoy said that including Israel to the “‘list of shame,’ will not bring back tens of thousands of our kids who were killed by Israel over decades.” However, he said that it is an important step in the right direction.
Reacting over the development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the United Nations put itself on the black list of history today” as the move heightened the long-running feud between the UN and Israel.
For month Israel has faced strong international criticism over civilian killings in the Gaza Strip and questions regarding whether it has done enough to stop them in the eight-month-old war. Two recent attacks in Gaza killed dozens of people.
UN agencies have warned that more than one million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of hunger by the middle of next month if conflict continues.
