Hebrew media reported that the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, informed the Israeli army attaché in the United States, Heidi Zilberman, of his decision to include Israel on the blacklist of countries and organizations that harm children.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said on Friday: “Guterres informed the Israeli army attaché in the United States, Heidi Zilberman, that he had made the final decision to include Israel in the blacklist of countries and organizations that harm children in conflict zones, along with Russia and the ISIS, Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram organizations.” .

It added: "All Israeli efforts to persuade Guterres to refrain from this step have failed, and Israel will appear on a blacklist that will be published next week as part of a report distributed to members of the Security Council."

It continued: "Although an official statement by the Secretary-General of the United Nations has not yet been published, Israel understands that the decision has been taken, and the report will be discussed on June 26."

It pointed out that "the report, which is published once a year and covers the previous year, was written by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on children and war zones, Virginia Gamba."

“The current report will cover the entire year 2023, as the last quarter witnessed a jump in data due to the events of October 7,” she said.

It added: "Last year, the blacklist included Afghanistan, Colombia, Congo, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram organizations. The dramatic change last year is that the Russian Armed Forces were also included in the report."

It continued: “Guterres will not explicitly mention Israel or the Israeli army - but, for example, he will mention the Israeli security forces.”

It noted that "until this year, there was a chapter in the report dedicated to Israel and the Palestinians, but Israel has not yet been included in the blacklist, entitled 'Parties that have not taken sufficient steps to improve child protection.'"

It pointed out that the report indicates that "Israel killed and wounded thousands of children, bombed civilian facilities, and prevented humanitarian aid."

Itsaid: “The source of the data contained in the report is United Nations organizations and actors on the ground, but the organization does not feed on the data provided by the parties.”

It added: “The consequences of being blacklisted are reputational damage because the report has a great international reputation and will be cited in all UN bodies, including the UN General Assembly, the Security Council and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.”

It continued: “In practice, once a country or entity is added to the list, a mechanism is established that issues ad hoc reports in relation to it. In other words, the Office of the Special Envoy will have to prepare special reports on Israel. Subsequently, reports will be submitted to the Security Council Working Group.” Concerning children in conflict areas.

It added: "The working group itself can issue recommendations that the Security Council can decide to accept or not - for example, through a Council resolution on what is expected of Israel."

The newspaper noted that the move "will give negative tailwinds to initiatives to boycott, delegitimize, harm trade, and ban arms."

There was no immediate comment from the Secretary-General of the United Nations regarding what was reported by the Hebrew newspaper until 09:15 GMT.

On Tuesday, the Hamas movement called on the United Nations to include Israel on the “blacklist of criminal entities against children.”

The movement stated, in a statement, that “according to UN reports, one child is injured or dies every 10 minutes in Gaza.”

Itsaid, "14,000 children were martyred during the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, and this number exceeds the number of children killed recorded over 4 years of conflicts in the world."

Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza with absolute American support, leaving more than 119,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.

Israel continues this war, ignoring a Security Council resolution demanding that it stop the fighting immediately, and orders from the Court of Justice to stop its attack on Rafah, and take immediate measures to prevent acts of “genocide” and “improve the humanitarian situation” in Gaza.

Source: Anatolia