United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip shows that there is something "clearly wrong" with Israel's military operations against Hamas Palestinian terrorists.
"There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong," Guterres told Reuters NEXT.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, after the terrorists killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 attack. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground invasion.
The number of Palestinians killed
Hamas officials have claimed 10,569 people have now been killed, 40% of them children.
"It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people," Guterres said. "That doesn't help Israel in relation to the global public opinion."
Guterres compared the number of children being killed in Gaza with the toll in conflicts around the world that he reports on annually.
"Every year, the highest number of killings of children by any of the actors in all the conflicts that we witness is the maximum in the hundreds," Guterres said.
"We have in a few days in Gaza thousands and thousands of children killed, which means there is also something clearly wrong in the way military operations are being done," he said.
The UN report on children and armed conflict includes a list intended to shame parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. It has long been controversial, with diplomats saying Israel exerted pressure in recent years in a bid to stay off the list.
The next report is due mid-next year.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that war crimes had been committed by both Israel and Hamas in the conflict that erupted just over a month ago.
"The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on 7 October were heinous, they were war crimes - as is the continued holding of hostages," Volker Turk said at the Rafah crossing in Egypt on the border with Gaza.
"The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians is also a war crime, as is unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians," he added.