UN criticizes ‘ruthless’ killing of Palestinian children

The UN justice chief on Thursday warned of the number of Palestinian children killed and wounded this month and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

Last week, a three-day intense conflict erupted between Israel and Islamic Jihad fighters in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

“Harming every child in the course of conflict is deeply troubling,” said Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement.

“The killing and maiming of so many children this year is ruthless.”

Israeli air and artillery strikes positions belonging to the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad group.

Her office said 19 Palestinian children have been killed in recent unrest in the Palestinian territories, bringing the total to 37 this year.

The youngest child to become a victim was 10-year-old Liyan al-Shaer, who died Thursday in a Jerusalem hospital from a head wound sustained in the latest round of violence in the Gaza Strip.

Seventeen children were killed during hostilities in the Gaza Strip from August 5-7, while two others were killed in Israeli law enforcement operations in the West Bank on Tuesday.

The UN human rights office OHCHR said at least 22 were civilians among the 48 Palestinians killed in the Gaza conflict last week. They included the 17 children.

Of the 360 ​​Palestinians reported injured, nearly two-thirds were civilians, including 151 children, OHCHR said.

Three children from Gaza are being kept alive in a hospital in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday.

“In a number of incidents, children were the majority of victims,” ​​Bachelet’s office said.

“It is forbidden to launch an attack which could reasonably be expected to inadvertently kill or injure civilians or damage civilian objects, and to an extent disproportionate to the expected concrete and direct military advantage,” she said.

“Such attacks must stop.”

Bachelet’s office said Palestinian armed groups have fired hundreds of rockets and mortar shells in indiscriminate attacks, also in violation of international humanitarian law, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects in Israel and Gaza.

Israel insists some of the civilian fatalities, including children, were killed by Islamic Jihad missiles that fell short or misfired.

Bachelet called for investigations into all incidents in which people were killed or injured.

“There remains an almost complete lack of accountability in the occupied Palestinian territory,” she said.

“Be it because of violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to the hostilities in Gaza, or because of repeated Israeli violations of international human rights law and the law of occupation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”