PRAY FOR PALESTINE and ISRAEL for “Children should never be the target of violence and must not be put at risk of violence, nor encouraged to participate in violence”

Children’s rights continue to be violated in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israel, according to three leading UN officials in the region who called on all parties responsible to take concrete and immediate steps to “allow children to live free of fear and to realize all their rights”.

In a joint statement, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Jamie McGoldrick; the Head of the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) in the OPT, James Heenan; and the Special Representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the State of Palestine, Genevieve Boutin, said they were “deeply concerned” by continued reports of “children killed or seriously injured, some as young as 11” in Palestinian-administered areas.

They also denounced the fact that “children in Israel are exposed to fear, trauma, and grave injuries”.

“This month alone, seven Palestinian children were killed by live ammunition and shelling from Israel”, they said, adding that “two Israeli girls aged 14 and 15 also reportedly sustained injuries from rockets and mortar shells indiscriminately launched by Palestinian armed groups towards Israel”.

According to figures provided by UN agencies in the region, since the start of demonstrations at the border fence against Israel’s longstanding blockade and deteriorating living conditions in Gaza on 30 March, 26 Palestinian children have been killed.

21 were shot during the demonstrations, and five others were killed by Israeli shelling, or outside the context of demonstrations. In the same period, hundreds more children have been injured by live ammunition.

“A number of these children will suffer lifelong disabilities, including as a result of the amputation of limbs,” the UN officials said. “Thousands are in need of urgent psycho-social assistance, specialised medical care, and support for their rehabilitation.”

The statement stressed that “all over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but particularly in the Gaza Strip”, children are “robbed of every right.”

“Families cope with four hours of electricity per day in the sweltering heat, clean drinking water is expensive and hard to find. The start of the school year in one month will be very difficult for tens of thousands of families who cannot afford basic school supplies,” said the three UN officials.

In addition, they deplored the “too often cynical use of children in political rhetoric and propaganda on all sides,” citing last week's call by the organisers of the ‘Great March of Return’ for Palestinians to demonstrate under the banner of "the Friday of our Child Martyrs" and the reported exposure of children to violence. “Children should never be the target of violence and must not be put at risk of violence, nor encouraged to participate in violence,” the joint statement read.

“We call on Israel, as well as the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas authorities in Gaza to put children’s rights ahead of any other considerations and to take immediate steps to alleviate their suffering,” said Mr. McGoldrick, Mr. Heenan and Ms. Boutin. “Respecting the rights of children and refraining from instrumentalising their plight should be a priority for all”, they insisted, stressing that the Israeli-Palestinian context is “not an exception”.

On 23 July, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, briefed the UN’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, on the many human rights violations facing women, children and men living in the OPT.

PRAY FOR YEMEN as air strike hit the bus and killed civilians including children

10 August 2018

Peace and Security

An air strike on a busy market area in Yemen that reportedly killed scores of people including more than 20 children on a bus, is likely the worst attack on youngsters in the conflict so far, and the latest in a recent spate of violence targeting civilians, UN agencies said on Friday.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, and UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, at least 21 boys – most of them under the age of 15 – died when their bus was hit on Thursday in Dahyan market in Saada, in the north of the country.

More than 30 boys were also injured in the aerial bombardment, which was carried out by a Saudi-led international coalition that has backed Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Houthi opposition forces for more than three years.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned the attack on Thursday, urging an “independent and prompt investigation”, adding that warring parties must take “constant care to spare civilians”.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said that he was “deeply shocked by the appalling tragedy that claimed so many innocent lives”. The UN official has invited the warring parties to Geneva on 6 September in a bid to reach a political solution to the conflict – the first such discussions since 2016.

“This should urge us all to exert more efforts to end the conflict through an inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue,” he added, stressing that he hoped all of those involved in the fighting across the country will “engage constructively in the political process, including consultations scheduled in Geneva in September.”

Briefing journalists in Geneva on Friday, UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac said that the agency believed the air strike on the school bus constituted “the single worst attack” on children since 2015. “No such number of children have been involved in one incident before,” he added. Mr. Boulierac explained that following the attack, UNICEF staff on the ground reported chaotic scenes at the hospital where victims were being treated, adding that the number of fatalities could rise.

Reiterating the UN chief’s call for Yemen’s belligerents to spare civilians, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell noted that the bus attack followed a series of more minor – but deadly - incidents involving youngsters last month.

“A large number of children were killed yesterday appallingly, but in July, there are all manner of smaller incidents,” she said. “On 19 July, there were four children killed when a coalition air strike struck a farm. On 30 July, two children were killed when an air strike hit a motorbike. On 31 July, two children were killed; they were out with their sheep, grazing, and they took a direct hit from an aerial strike.”

Turning to the recent targeting of a hospital and other targets in the key Houthi-controlled port city of Hudaydah, the OHCHR spokesperson said that staff there had documented “at least” 41 civilian deaths. Among the dead were six children and four women, Ms. Throssell said, noting that mortars had struck different built-up locations in Al Hawak district.

These included the fishing port, a dock and hangar “at the time full of fishermen and street vendors”, the OHCHR spokesperson explained, adding that Al-Thawra hospital was hit shortly afterwards. In that attack, three mortars were fired, including one that landed in a busy street “full of traffic, street vendors and pedestrians”, Ms. Throssell said.

Between 26 March and 9 August 2018, OHCHR has documented 17,062 civilian casualties in Yemen; this includes 6,592 dead and 10,470 injured. The majority of these casualties – 10,471 – were as a result of air strikes carried out by the Saudi-led Coalition, it said in a statement.

Amid ongoing conflict in one of the world’s poorest countries, UNICEF warned that the consequences for children have been particularly striking.

“Every day in Yemen, children are starving, children are dying because of the level of violence and its consequences,” spokesperson Christophe Boulierac said. “1.8 million children are at risk of diarrhoeal diseases, 1.3 million children are at risk of pneumonia, more than 4 million children are in acute need of educational assistance. So, any violence in Yemen, any facility that provides water indirectly threatens the lives of children.”  

PRAY FOR AFGHANISTAN as brutal and senseless attacks against people at prayer are atrocities. International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian property, including places of worship

3 August 2018Peace and Security

A suicide attack that took place inside a Shia mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers, killing dozens and injuring more than 70, has been condemned by the head of the UN Mission in the country who said it “may amount to war crimes.”


The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) denounced the attack in Gardez city, about 50 miles south of Kabul, when two suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests.

“This attack targeting civilians has no possible justification,” said UNAMA chief, Tadamichi Yamamoto, who also serves as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan. “Those who are responsible for enabling this attack must be brought to justice and held to account.”

According to news reports, the Taliban has denied any links to the attack and there was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants linked to the ISIL terrorist group, also known as Da’esh, have carried out similar attacks against Shiites in the past.


These brutal and senseless attacks against people at prayer are atrocities – UNAMA chief Tadamichi Yamamoto

“These brutal and senseless attacks against people at prayer are atrocities,” said Mr. Yamamoto.

International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian property, including places of worship. It also commits warring parties to allow religious leaders to serve their communities without fear of attack.

“Such attacks directed against congregations and places of worship are serious violations of international law that may amount to war crimes,” he stressed.

UNAMA expressed its condolences to the loved ones of those killed and wished the injured a full and speedy recovery.

The latest terrorist assault comes on the heels of a suicide attack and hostage-taking at a government building on Wednesday, in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

According to mid-July figures from UNAMA, 1,692 civilians had been killed and another 3,430 injured in the first six months of the year. This sets a record high for the first six months of any year, despite an unprecedented days-long ceasefire between the Government and Taliban extremists in mid-June.https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/08/1016352