Israel among states rapped by UN for killing children

The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday in a report presented to the Security Council that 59 Palestinian children were killed and another 2,756 injured by Israeli forces last year, Reuters agency has reported.
Guterres also said, according to Reuters, that the highest number of Palestinian children had been killed or injured last year since 2014, mainly by Israeli forces, though no parties were blacklisted in the annex to the annual Children in Armed Conflict report.
The Israeli UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest report. In 2015, the United Nations criticized Israel over its 2014 military assault on Gaza.
Guterres urged “Israel to immediately put in place preventive and protective measures to end the excessive use of force”.
“I condemn the increasing number of child casualties, which are often a result of attacks in densely populated areas and against civilian objects, including schools and hospitals,” Guterres said in the report, produced by UN Children and Armed Conflict envoy Virginia Gamba and issued in Guterres’ name.
Diplomats say the occupying state of Israel has exerted pressure in recent years in a bid to stay off the blacklist, but no to avail.