The UN denounces that Israel intentionally kills children in Gaza

BarcelonaThe United Nations presented a report this Tuesday accusing Israel of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza for shooting children in the Strip with the intent to kill. Srinivasan Muralidhar, the president of the UN's International Independent Commission of Inquiry for the Palestinian Territories – the body responsible for the report – stated at a press conference that children are being killed "mainly in two ways": through aerial attacks with high-explosive ordnance with a wide radius of impact, or by the use of quadcopters, drones, and snipers "who specifically aim at the head and upper body to kill them".The report assures that it has enough evidence to state that “Israel attacks children to weaken demographic vitality and deny the Palestinian people the right to self-determination”, in the words of the president. Furthermore, Muralidhar has denounced that since October 2023, more than 20,000 children have been murdered in Gaza, in addition to the 44,000 who have been injured and the 58,000 who have been orphaned.The text also points out that Palestinian children, especially adolescents, are “detained, tortured, and mistreated in Israeli prisons and detention centers” and that cases of sexual violence against minors have been documented. On the other hand, it denounces that Israeli attacks against pediatric hospitals have “systematically deprived children of access to vital care,” and also notes the use of starvation as a method of warfare.Furthermore, the Indian jurist recalled that 97% of schools in the Strip have been destroyed, and alleged that Israeli authorities have “systematically disrupted children's ability to learn, sabotaging the intellectual and social foundations of Palestinian society”. On the other hand, Muralidhar reminded the UN member states that they have different options to hold Israel accountable: “they can exercise universal jurisdiction in their national courts, and we have asked them to arrest any Israeli official against whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant”. He also reiterated the call to stop sending weapons to Israel.This Tuesday's is the second report accusing Israel of genocide, published by a Commission that does not officially represent the UN. Last September, a first report indicated that there are sufficient grounds to state that Israel has committed four of the five genocide crimes defined in the Geneva Convention of 1948.The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, has declared that he "categorically" rejects the report's conclusions and has called it a "defamatory farce" and "as scandalous a piece of propaganda as the previous ones." Since October 7, 2023, at least 73,305 Palestinians have died due to Israel's attacks in Gaza, according to the Strip's Ministry of Health.