(United Nations) After months of war in Gaza, the Israeli army will be added to the UN “list of shame” on the rights of children in conflict, a decision welcomed by Palestinians, but castigated by Israel, even if Hamas must also join it.
At the request of the Security Council, the UN Secretary General publishes each year a report which lists violations of children’s rights in around twenty conflict zones around the world and lists in annex those responsible for these violations, which include children. killed and mutilated, recruitment, kidnapping or sexual violence.
The publication of this “list of shame” is scheduled for June 18, but Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan took everyone by surprise on Friday by announcing that he had been notified, by Antonio Guterres’ chief of staff, of the addition of the Israeli army.
“I am deeply shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the Secretary General,” Gilad Erdan is seen saying on the phone in a video posted on his X account.
“This is an immoral decision that aids terrorism and rewards Hamas […] Shame on him! », Adds the ambassador who has regularly attacked Antonio Guterres and the UN in general in recent months.
“Today, the UN has added itself to the blacklist of History by joining those who support the murderers of Hamas,” added Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli armed forces are “the most moral army in the world and no crazy UN decision will change that.”
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, on the other hand, welcomed the addition of Israel.
This “will not bring back the tens of thousands of our children killed by Israel over several decades,” but “it is an important step in the right direction to end the double standards and culture of impunity that has benefited Israel for too long,” he commented on X.
Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson confirmed the telephone conversation between the chief of staff and the Israeli ambassador.
It was a “courtesy call”, reserved for countries “newly listed” in the report, said Stéphane Dujarric, deeming the recording and broadcast of the video “shocking and unacceptable”.
Asked about the possible inclusion of Hamas, he declined to provide any further information about the contents of the report before its June 18 release.
However, a diplomatic source told AFP that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another armed Palestinian movement, would indeed be added to the list.
Last year, Russian armed forces and “affiliated” armed groups operating in Ukraine appeared on the “list of shame.”
But not Israel, to the great dismay of human rights organizations who have been calling for its inclusion for years.
The UN warned in the 2022 report that Israel would be placed on the list if no improvement was seen.
But last year’s report noted “a significant decline in the number of children killed by Israeli forces, including in airstrikes,” between 2021 and 2022.
The war between Israel and Hamas, sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel – which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, the majority civilians killed that day, according to an AFP tally taken in based on official Israeli data – changed the situation.
Israel’s inclusion this year is “a completely justified decision by the secretary-general, even if it should have been taken a long time ago,” Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch told AFP.
“This is something we have been calling for for a long time, with the listing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.”
In response to the October 7 attack, the Israeli army launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip where Hamas took power in 2007. At least 36,731 Palestinians were killed, according to a latest report Friday from the ministry of Health of the Hamas-led Gaza government. This report no longer specifies the number of children, but the press office of the Gaza government puts forward the figure of more than 15,000 minors killed.