The United Nations will release a report this week finding that more serious human rights violations against children were committed in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel last year than anywhere else in the world, according to the Guardian and other media outlets familiar with the document.
The assessment is due to be presented to the UN General Assembly by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later this week.
The report allegedly found more cases of war crimes against children in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza than any other region, including war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria.
“Gross violations against children are being committed on an unprecedented scale and intensity in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory,” it said. The UN found “8,009 serious violations against 4,360 children” in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, more than double the figure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the next worst country for violence against children. Of the total confirmed child victims, 4,247 were Palestinian and 113 were Israeli.
The document attributes 5,698 violations to Israeli military and security forces, and 116 to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Israeli settlers in the West Bank were found responsible for 51 cases. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) Al-Quds Brigades were said to have been involved in 21 cases.
The UN has verified that 2,051 Palestinian children were killed between Oct. 7 and the end of December last year. “Most of the incidents were caused by Israeli army and security forces using explosive weapons in populated areas,” the report’s authors noted.
