Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United Nations has added Israel to its blacklist of nations that commit harms against children. It joins Russia, DR Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar. Non-state actors in this category include ISIL, the Taliban, and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been added to this category this year as well, especially for their attacks on Israeli children on October 7, 2023.
In 26 conflicts throughout the world, the United Nations counted almost 33,000 grave violations against more than 22,500 children.
Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories witnessed an alarming rise in violations against children. As bad as the situation was there, it was even worse in Sudan.
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were responsible for killing 43 Israeli children on Oct. 7, by live fire, or by rockets and other means. Militant Palestinian groups also killed or maimed Israeli children in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and northern Israel. Some three thousand cases of alleged injuries to Israeli children have yet to be verified.
The report says that for 2023, the UN verified 3,029 Israeli violations against children in Gaza, and over 4,800 in the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. About 5,698 of these violations were committed by the Israeli armed and security forces.
Last year, Israel detained 906 Palestinian children, mostly in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some remained imprisoned without charge at the end of the year. In some instances, the Israelis attempted to turn minors into informants.
Among the most alarming sentences in the report is that “the United Nations received reports of the detention of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, compounded by multiple forms of sexual violence.”
My lord.
The Israeli Security Forces killed thousands of children in the Gaza Strip with explosive weapons: “Some 19,887 Palestinian children were reported killed or maimed and the reports are pending verification.”
The UN was able to verify that another 1,975 children were maimed, including 166 girls, mainly in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Some 10,787 children in Gaza were reported maimed by Israeli forces, but the verification process is ongoing.
Harms to children included not only bodily harm but also on schools and hospitals serving children, as well as on teachers and physicians. Some 340 such attacks were carried out by Israeli security forces, 45 on schools and 326 on hospitals. Some 106 teachers, physicians or other staff in schools and pediatric clinics and hospitals were harmed by Israeli troops.
The report says, “A total of 3,227 permit applications (1,895 for boys, 1,332 for girls) to Israeli authorities for children to exit the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing point, or from the occupied West Bank, to gain access to specialized medical treatment were denied or not approved in time to reach scheduled hospital appointments.” This number represented about 18% of such applications, so almost a fifth were turned down. Of course, in the last quarter of 2023, children in Gaza with medical conditions needing outside treatment were simply trapped, and many have died of cancer or kidney disease, etc.
The report adds, that in Israel’s war on Gaza, “all critical infrastructure, facilities and services have been attacked, including shelter sites, United Nations installations, schools, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, grain mills and bakeries.”
As a result of lack of electricity and lack of these destroyed facilities, “Children are at risk of famine, severe malnutrition and preventable death.”
In fact, the UN just reported that 8,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have been diagnosed with malnutrition.
The report is also scathing about the crimes against Israeli children commited by Hamas’ Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades. But they also harmed Palestinian children and last year they “organized ‘summer camps,’ including for children, exposing them to military content and activities.”
The UN called for all sides to release child hostages and to abide by the laws of war in avoiding harm to innocent children in the prosecution of their war aims.
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