The United Nations’ annual report on children in conflict zones isn’t set to come out until June, but the draft report obtained by Fox News Digital is already causing concern. The report excludes several examples of Israeli victims of the ongoing war, while lobbing accusations at the Jewish state.
Throughout the section of the report on Israeli and Palestinian children, there are instances of the U.N. conflicting verified and unverified data. Though the report admits that there is unverified data, it does not give any information on who was responsible for verifying the other figures. This lack of transparency leaves room to doubt the report’s accuracy.
“We will not cooperate with a report that serves as a platform for baseless slander against Israel,” Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement sent exclusively to Fox News Digital.
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The report claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) kidnapped a Palestinian girl. While it is stated that the incident was verified, the U.N. provides no information on who did the verification. There are also no details about the incident in the report. It does not say where the child was allegedly abducted or whether she is alive.
In one of its more egregious claims, the report accuses IDF soldiers of using 27 Palestinian children as human shields in the West Bank and Gaza. Once again, the report claims these cases have been verified but does not say who confirmed them. The use of human shields is not a known IDF practice, but it is something Hamas has been accused of doing for years.
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“There are reports of the use of human shields by Hamas’ Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip,” the draft of the report reads.
There is another Hamas tactic that the U.N. appears to pin on Israel in its report — the use of schools and hospitals as military outposts. Both Israel and the U.S. have verified that Hamas used hospitals in Gaza for military purposes.
In November 2023, just weeks after the war began, IDF Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus posted a video tour of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza showing weapons caches, Hamas paraphernalia and ammunition scattered throughout the facility.
Israel is also slammed in the report for denying Palestinians humanitarian aid. However, there is no mention of Hamas and Palestinian armed groups looting aid trucks. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in November 2024 that of the 109 aid trucks that crossed from Israel into Gaza, 97 were “violently looted.”
What the U.N. left out of the report is also telling. While it does say that two Israeli boys were killed in captivity in Gaza, it does not name Kfir and Ariel Bibas, nor does it mention that they were killed by their captors. Additionally, the draft report contains no mention of the 12 Druze children killed by Hezbollah rocket fire while playing soccer in northern Israel.
“The secretary-general once again chooses to blatantly ignore the violence and harm done to Israeli children. Based on this report, Israeli lives do not matter and are not worthy of attention. Israel will not let diplomatic terrorism prevail,” Ambassador Danon told Fox News Digital.
