UN Blacklists Israel for Violations against Children in Conflict

The United Nations added Israel to its “blacklist” of countries committing abuses against children in armed conflict.

In a social media post on Friday, the Israeli regime's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, stated that he received official notification of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's decision.

"This is simply outrageous and wrong," Erdan wrote, alongside a video of him speaking into a telephone and condemning the move.

"I responded to the shameful decision and said that our army is the most moral in the world. The only one being blacklisted is the Secretary General who incentivizes and encourages terrorism and is motivated by hatred towards Israel."

Commenting on Erdan’s remarks later in the day, Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a UN official had called the Israeli envoy as "a courtesy afforded to countries that are newly listed on the annexe" of the annual "Children in Armed Conflict" report.

"It is done to give those countries a heads-up and avoid leaks," Dujarric told reporters, adding that the report is set to be presented to the UN Security Council on June 14 and then officially published a few days later.

"Ambassador Erdan’s video recording of that phone call, and the partial release of that recording on Twitter, is shocking and unacceptable – and frankly something I’ve never seen in my 24 years serving this organization," Dujarric said.

Around 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed in the past eight months during the Israeli military’s continued assault on the Gaza Strip.