“If you look at the number of civilians killed in Israeli military operations, something is clearly wrong,” said António Guterres
António Guterres and children attacked in Gaza
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NEW YORK (Portal) United Nations (UN) SecretaryGeneral António Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip shows that there is “clearly wrong” with Israeli military operations against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“There are violations by Hamas when it has human shields. But when you look at the number of civilians killed in military operations, something is clearly wrong,” Guterres told Portal Next at the event. >>> READ MORE: Palestinians report the smell of death, unanesthetized surgeries and mass graves after a month of Israeli bombings of Gaza
Israel has vowed to root out Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, after the group’s militants killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostage in an Oct. 7 attack. Israel has attacked Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and recently launched a ground invasion.
According to the Palestinian authorities, 10,569 people have already been killed, 40% of them children. “It is also important to make it clear to Israel that it is against Israel’s interests to see every day the terrible picture of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said. “That doesn’t help Israel in terms of global public opinion.”
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Guterres compared the number of children killed in Gaza to the number of children killed in conflicts around the world, which he reports on annually. “Every year, the highest number of child deaths by any of the actors in any conflict we have experienced is in the hundreds at most,” Guterres said. “In just a few days, thousands of children have been killed in Gaza, which means there is also clearly something wrong with the way military operations are carried out,” he said.
The UN report on children and armed conflict contains a list aimed at shaming parties involved in conflicts and thereby forcing them to implement measures to protect children. The document has long been controversial. Diplomats said Israel had exerted pressure in recent years to be removed from the list. The next report is scheduled for the middle of next year.