UN Report on Children in Conflict Zones Omits Bibas Brothers’ Murder

March 7, 2025

by: Itamar Eichner ~ Ynetnews

Friday, 7 March 2025 | The draft of the UN’s annual report on children in conflict zones, expected to be published in June 2025, continues to demonstrate imbalance and an anti-Israel tone. The report, for example, ignores the youngest Israeli victims of the war—failing to mention the names of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were murdered in captivity in Gaza and whose bodies were returned in the last hostage deal. Additionally, the 12 children killed by a Hezbollah rocket in Majdal Shams are not mentioned at all.

The report inflates figures, includes unverified information, and blurs the responsibility of terror organizations for causing harm to children. The draft was shared with Israel for its comments, but Jerusalem was shocked by the UN’s insensitivity and hypocrisy and decided not to cooperate with the report. Among other accusations, the report blames the IDF for using exactly 27 Palestinian children as “human shields,” yet it only vaguely mentions Hamas’s systematic use of civilians as human shields, without verifying specific cases.

The report claims Israeli security forces “kidnapped a Palestinian girl,” while simultaneously omitting the names of Kfir and Ariel Bibas. If that were not enough, the report does not state that the young siblings were murdered by their captors, instead merely saying they “died in captivity.” Furthermore, the report blames Israel for harming children due to the impact of rocket interception fragments during Iranian missile launches toward Israel—without acknowledging the original source of the attack.

On the topic of humanitarian aid, the UN places almost all responsibility on Israel while almost entirely ignoring the fact that Hamas itself damaged the crossings designated for aid transfers and, according to countless testimonies and evidence, also stole aid intended for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for its own purposes. The report claims that 2,723 requests for aid were denied but downplays the fact that 5,327 requests—nearly twice as many—were approved.

Regarding the number of Palestinian casualties, the report presents thousands of deaths and injuries, many of which are unverified, creating a misleading impression of the scale of events. Responsibility for violations is placed almost entirely on Israel, while Hamas is not held accountable at all, and Hezbollah and Iran are given only marginal mentions in the biased report.

The report also claims the IDF used schools and hospitals for military purposes in 10 different cases, but it mentions only one instance in which Hamas used civilian structures for military purposes—despite the well-documented fact that many “innocent” buildings in Gaza were revealed to be bases for launching terror operations.

The situation is no different in the reports on the northern front. In Lebanon, most of the harm to children is attributed to Israel, while Hezbollah is not mentioned at all as being responsible for any harm. Similarly, in Syria, Israeli actions are included in the total count of casualties, but—there is no mention of the 12 children killed in Majdal Shams.

The UN “verified” 8,555 serious violations against 2,960 children — only 15 of whom were Israeli children, while the rest were Palestinian children

The draft also relies on unverified data that portrays Israel in a negative light while minimizing the severity of violations committed by terror organizations. According to the draft, which was shared with Israel, the UN “verified” 8,555 serious violations against 2,960 children—only 15 of whom were Israeli children, while the rest were Palestinian children.

Most of the cases occurred in Gaza, with thousands in East Jerusalem and the West Bank [Judea and Samaria]. Additionally, 2,788 “serious violations” were verified for 2023 in Gaza, compared to only one “serious violation” in Israel. Furthermore, the UN received reports of the deaths of 4,230 children in Gaza in 2024, for which the verification process is still ongoing.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, responded sharply to the biased report, saying: “We will not cooperate with a report that serves as a platform for baseless accusations against Israel. The Secretary-General once again chooses to blatantly ignore the harm done to Israeli children—as far as he’s concerned, our lives are worth less and don’t deserve to be included in this report. We will not let diplomatic terrorism prevail.”

Posted on March 7, 2025

Source: (This article was originally published by Ynetnews on March 7, 2025. See original article at this link.)

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