UN Secretary General Shocked by Reports of Israel’s Crimes Against Palestinian Children

New York, MINA – The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed his shock at the annual report “Armed Conflict and Children” which said Israeli occupation forces killed 78 Palestinian children, injured 982 others and detained 637 in 2021.

“If the situation repeats itself in 2022, without significant improvement, Israel should be registered,” Guterres warned in the report, Palinfo reported.

The UN secretary general said he was appalled by the killing and wounding of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in air strikes on densely populated areas, through the use of live ammunition and the continued lack of accountability for these abuses.

He repeated his call for Israeli forces to exercise maximum restraint to protect lives and implement preventive measures, review and strengthen their procedures to end and prevent excessive use of force against children, in an unprecedented warning.

Guterres called on Israel to investigate every case where live ammunition was used, as he acknowledged for the first time, the lack of systematic accountability for Israeli abuses against Palestinian children.

The report also highlighted the issue of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, with Guterres stressing the need for Israel to comply with international standards regarding the detention of children, and an end to administrative detention, ill-treatment and violence.

In his report, the UN Secretary-General expressed concern at the increasing Israeli attacks on schools and educational institutions serving children, stressing the need to provide necessary humanitarian and health assistance to children without Israeli barriers. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)