AhlulBayt News Agency: In its annual report on Children and Armed Conflict, the United Nations has once again placed Israel on its “list of shame” for committing grave violations against children, highlighting the scale of abuse amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza and escalating violence in the West Bank.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s 2024 report, released Friday, confirms that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and Israeli settlers were responsible for 8,554 serious violations against 2,944 Palestinian children across the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, and Occupied Jerusalem during the reporting period.
These violations include killing, maiming, arbitrary arrests, the use of children as human shields, and attacks on schools and hospitals—actions that constitute clear breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The report details the arrest of 951 Palestinian children: 861 in the West Bank, 259 in Occupied Jerusalem, and 90 in the Gaza Strip. It also documents 27 cases in which the IOF used Palestinian children as human shields during military operations—an egregious violation of international law.
Children with disabilities were not spared. According to the UN, 1,561 disabled Palestinian children were subjected to violations—1,507 of them injured by Israeli forces and 54 harmed by settlers.
In terms of humanitarian access, the report records 5,091 cases in which Palestinians, including children, were denied aid or essential services—2,828 of those in the West Bank and 2,263 in Gaza.
Guterres expressed “deep concern” over the worsening situation, urging accountability for Israeli actions and calling on all parties to uphold international law and ensure the protection of children, educational institutions, and healthcare facilities.
The UN report comes as the genocide in Gaza continues unabated. Since October 7, 2023, IOF has launched a massive military onslaught that rights organizations describe as a systematic campaign of extermination involving mass killing, starvation, deliberate destruction, and the forced displacement of civilians.
To date, approximately 186,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured, the majority of them children and women. Over 11,000 people remain missing, while famine and disease spread rapidly amid a collapsing health and humanitarian infrastructure. Hundreds of thousands are displaced.
At the same time, violence has surged across the West Bank. Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed around 1,000 Palestinians, wounded nearly 7,000, and arrested more than 17,500, according to Palestinian officials.
Despite repeated orders from the International Court of Justice and mounting international pressure, Israel continues to defy calls to end its attacks and comply with international law.
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