Palestinians urge UN to hold Israel accountable for child killings

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Monday urged Israel to be held accountable for the killing of Palestinian children in a letter to United Nations leaders.

The letter was sent to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his representative for children and armed conflict, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The message said Israel has "wilfully killed" more than 44 Palestinian children so far this year, including Mahmoud Samoudi, 12, who passed away on Monday after Israeli troops shot him almost two weeks ago in the occupied West Bank.

"Israel deliberately targets Palestinian children and minors with the stated aim of killing and maiming them, thus denying them their right to life," the foreign ministry said.

"Children must never be killed or maimed. The State of Palestine warns that Israel's escalating crimes and deliberate targeting of Palestinian children will continue unabatedly and exponentially if accountability is not urgently and effectively pursued."

The letter listed five other Palestinian children and young people recently killed by Israel, whose ages range from 14 to 19 years old.

The foreign ministry said: "Deliberately aiming at the upper parts of their bodies, Israeli soldiers are applying Israel's infamous shoot-to-kill policy that has resulted in the killing of hundreds of Palestinian children."

It also highlighted the death of Rayan Suleiman, 7, saying he was killed "by sheer terror of the Israeli occupation soldiers".

Suleiman "fell off a high wall" after Israeli troops "ran after" him in a West Bank town close to Bethlehem in late September, his uncle Munir previously told The New Arab.

"The boy's heart had stopped and doctors [at a hospital] tried to revive it for more than 40 minutes, before pronouncing him dead," Munir said.

The foreign ministry letter described the "evidence of Israel's mounting crimes against Palestinians" as "undoubtedly overwhelming".

Israel admits it killed five children in Gaza strike - after initially blaming Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants for the deaths https://t.co/wpUW2FlTvx

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It urged Guterres to place Israel "on the list of shame for its systematic violations against Palestinian children".

The UN secretary-general's list of shame is published annually and names those who seriously abuse children in conflicts.

The foreign ministry's letter said Palestinian children "are entitled to their human rights, to protection, to health, to dignity, and to peace".

It is "unacceptable" and "indefensible" for international law to be selectively applied, and this is damaging for both Palestinians and the "international rules-based order", the ministry said.

The letter added that Palestine urges the international community to "end this intolerable nightmare that our children are living on a daily basis" and hold Israel accountable.