The Committee on the Rights of the Child, made up of 18 independent experts in human rights, condemned the Israeli attacks against civilian targets in the Strip, which have resulted in more than 16,700 children killed and at least 6,100 wounded.

The president of the Committee, Ann Skelton, described as unacceptable the rates of violations of international humanitarian law and internationally established human rights protection.

Children, the expert recalled, are always civilians.

According to the report, as a result of the indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, at least one million children have been displaced, 21,000 are missing, 20,000 have lost one or both parents and nearly 17,000 are alone or separated from their families.

The report denounces the use of explosive weapons with wide-range effects in densely populated areas, and the denial of humanitarian access, which has caused dozens of children to die from malnutrition, leaving 3,500 children at risk of death from lack of food.

“I don’t think we have ever witnessed a violation as massive as the one we have seen in Gaza,” Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice-president of the Committee, told the press.

Gudbrandsson denounced three of the six most serious violations that Israel commits: killing and maiming children, attacking hospitals and schools and denying humanitarian access.

“These are extremely serious violations that we don’t usually see. The outrageous deaths of children are almost unique in history. This is an extremely dark moment in history,” it said.

Ied/lam/ebr