THE UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has urged Israel to immediately stop killing and maiming Palestinian children in Gaza. After reviewing six states parties during its latest session, the committee released findings on Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Israel, Mexico and Turkmenistan.
“The Committee is deeply concerned by the high number of children in Gaza who have been killed, maimed, injured, missing, displaced, orphaned, and affected by hunger, malnutrition and disease, as a result of the State Party’s indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks,” the committee said in a press release, as reported by Anadolu, Friday (20/9).
The CRC also urged Israel to immediately stop the killing and injury of Palestinian children in Gaza, ensure safe and unfettered humanitarian access to and within the Gaza Strip, and allow the entry of all construction materials needed for Palestinian families to rebuild their homes and civil and public infrastructure.
In addition, the committee also expressed deep concern about the continued abduction, arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention of large numbers of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, mostly without charge, trial or access to legal representation or contact with family members.
Israel must also immediately end arbitrary and administrative detention of children, release all Palestinian children who have been arbitrarily detained, and abolish the institutionalized system of detention and the use of torture and ill-treatment against them at all stages of the judicial procedure.
No Israeli measures identified to prevent deaths of children in Gaza Detailing its findings at a press conference in Geneva, the CRC said it could not identify any measures taken by Israel to protect Gaza children during its military operation.
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“We are indeed trying to get answers about the measures that Israel has taken to protect children in densely populated areas during military operations in accordance with international humanitarian law,” said CRC Deputy Chair Bragi Gudbrandsson.
Gudbrandsson stressed that the use of large-area weapons in residential areas, including homes inhabited by multi-generational families, naturally raises concerns about the protection of civilians, especially children.
“We don’t have an adequate answer to this, and I think the numbers speak for themselves,” he said. “I don’t think we can identify any specific action that has been taken to save children’s lives in this military operation in Gaza.”
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He also said that Israel did acknowledge its obligations under international humanitarian law during discussions with the CRC, but “in our view, Israel did not provide us with sufficient information to make us believe that they had taken any action to avoid deaths, to save lives in Gaza.”
Over nearly a year, Israeli attacks have killed more than 41,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured more than 95,500, according to local health authorities.
Israel’s offensive has displaced nearly the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade and shortages of food, clean water and medicine. Israel is also facing charges of genocide over its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. (I-2)
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