CNN
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added the Israeli military to a list of international criminals who commit human rights violations against children, his spokesman confirmed on Friday.
Israel has been informed that it will be included on the list in the secretary-general’s annual report on children in armed conflict, which will be presented to the UN Security Council next Friday, Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric told a news conference.
In addition to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were also added to the list, diplomatic sources said.
Dujarric added that Secretary-General Guterres had called the U.N. mission in Israel on Friday – a courtesy given to newly listed countries – “to let these countries know in advance and to prevent any leaks,” he said.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan recorded a video of himself making a phone call from his office to what appeared to be a UN official, and leaked an excerpt from the video on social media.
In the video, Erdan expressed outrage at the UN decision and called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.”
“Today the only person on the blacklist is the Secretary-General. His decisions since the start of the war and even before that have rewarded terrorists and encouraged the use of children in terrorist acts… Shame on you!”
Dujarric called Erdan’s publication of the contents of his private phone calls “shocking and unacceptable” and said he had “never seen anything like this in my 24 years with this organization.”
Israel was on the list after eight months of war have seen more than 15,500 children killed, according to the Gaza Strip’s health ministry.
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead and around 250 taken hostage. Many remain held captive despite the Israeli onslaught, and Hamas’ most senior leaders remain at large.
The UN’s so-called blacklist has previously included countries such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour said the decision to add Israel to the list “will not bring back life for the tens of thousands of children killed by Israel over decades, nor will it restore normalcy to those children permanently harmed by Israel’s actions.”
“But it is an important step in the right direction towards ending the double standards and culture of impunity that Israel has enjoyed for too long, and which has consequently put our children at risk.”
The annual report will be presented to the Security Council on June 14. The official report will be released on June 18 and will be discussed during a Council debate on June 26.
Asked about the repercussions, a UN spokesman said it was up to member states to decide what action to take.
The war has brought relations between Israel and the United Nations to an all-time low, with Israeli diplomats using their platforms at the UN to criticise the organisation.
The conflict between Israel and the UN does not end with the Secretary-General, with Israeli officials also criticising the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the World Health Organisation, the UN Women’s organisation and the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese.
Meanwhile, dozens of UN staff have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, the largest loss in the organization’s history.
Israel has long accused UNRWA of conducting anti-Israel incitement, which the agency has repeatedly denied, and in 2017 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the agency should be dismantled and merged with the UN’s main refugee agency.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli journalists and media outlets have renewed their focus on UNRWA, expanding their reporting to question the organization’s role in the war.
