NEW YORK
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday decided not to include Israel on a list of countries and organizations that cause harm to children, according to media reports.
Ban's decision was made against his special envoy Leila Zerrougui's recommendation that Israel should be on the list alongside the likes of Daesh and al-Qaeda for its violations during its 2014 assault on Gaza.
The decision also follows media reports that Israel and the U.S. government pressured the UN chief to drop the Israeli army from the list, also known as the "List of Shame".
In the body of the report, Ban says Israel violated children's rights in an "unprecedented and unacceptable scale" in 2014, the summer in which a 51-day Israeli assault on Gaza killed 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
These violations "raises grave concerns about Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law", according to the report distributed to UN Security Council members and obtained by Reuters news agency.
Speaking to reporters, Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the report is "much more than the list".
"I would encourage everyone to not focus so much on the list but on the report as a whole,” he said.
Previously, the UN confirmed that at least 44 Palestinians were killed and 220 injured by Israel's attacks on seven UN-run schools during Israel's attacks last July and August.
Last week, Human Rights Watch urged the UN chief to resist pressure from Israel and its allies to drop the Jewish state from the list.
“Secretary-General Ban can strengthen child protection in war by compiling his list based on facts, not political pressure,” said Philippe Bolopion, UN director for the rights watchdog.
