Israel’s war on Gaza updates: UN to add Israeli army to child harm list

This live page is now closed.

You can read about the UN’s decision to add Israel to its annual “blacklist” of countries that have violated the rights of children in armed conflict here.

For more on escalating attacks and tension at the Israel-Lebanon border, read our explainer here.

And to hear directly from Palestinians about the other side of Gaza they wish the world would see, watch Al Jazeera’s The Stream episode, here.

We are going to bring our live coverage to an end soon. Here’s a summary of today’s main events:

• The UN is set to add Israel to its annual “blacklist” of countries that have committed abuses against children in armed conflict, spurring an angry response from Israeli leaders.
• Israel continues its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with attacks reported in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah, among other areas.
• The White House says it is still awaiting an official response from Hamas to the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal, which was presented last week by President Joe Biden.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel as well as Egypt, Jordan and Qatar next week to push the ceasefire plan, the State Department says.
• Israeli forces and fighters with the Lebanese group Hezbollah continue to exchange fire across the Lebanon-Israel border, fuelling concerns of a regional escalation.

Here is another list of numbers, provided by the Gaza Media Office, related to infrastructure damage in Gaza since Israel’s war on the coastal enclave began eight months ago:

• 110 schools and universities completely destroyed.
• 604 mosques completely destroyed.
• 3 churches targeted and destroyed.
• 138,300 housing units were completely destroyed.
• 453,000 housing units partially destroyed.
• 33 hospitals taken out of service.

The Gaza Media Office has published a comprehensive list of statistics highlighting the devastation in Gaza amid the ongoing war.

Here is a summary of numbers related to the healthcare situation in the coastal enclave:

• 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food.
• 11,000 people injured need to travel for treatment abroad.
• 1,477,748 people are infected with infectious diseases due to displacement.
• 71,338 cases of viral hepatitis infection as a result of being displaced.
• 60,000 pregnant women are at risk due to lack of access to healthcare.
• 350,000 chronic patients are at risk due to preventing the introduction of medications.

Alexandra Saieh from Save the Children says it is “absolutely shameful” that the international community and its members have not done enough to bring the war to an end.

“We welcome this decision … it’s one step [putting Israel on the blacklist] in holding the perpetrators to account … and alongside Israel, we’re also calling on the Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad to be listed for the great violations that they have committed against children. No one should be above the law,” she told Al Jazeera.

Saieh said the eight-month-long war in Gaza had been “absolutely catastrophic” for children.

“What we’ve seen is children being killed at an unprecedented rate. We’ve seen children maimed. We’ve also seen denial of humanitarian assistance, which has led to starvation and deaths due to extreme malnutrition, dehydration and disease,” she added.

“Remember, there are still thousands of children who are also trapped under the rubble, many of whom you know have not been able to be recovered.”

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says it is conducting “awareness and guidance” workshops on infectious diseases for displaced people in shelters and schools, with a focus on Hepatitis A.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office on Friday, 1,477,748 displaced people in the coastal enclave have contracted an infectious disease.

PRCS community work teams are conducting awareness and guidance workshops for the displaced in schools and shelter camps in the central governorate about infectious diseases, especially Hepatitis A. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/KpDLf7EKHS

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 7, 2024

US news outlet Axios reports that Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz will resign from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government tomorrow, backing up Israeli media reports.

This follows the expiration of a deadline Gantz set last month for the developing of a clear plan “to achieve victory” in Gaza.

The families of Israeli captives in Gaza have urged Gantz not to resign until a prisoner exchange agreement is reached with Hamas.

According to a local official, the attack took place in the Ras Ein al-Auja area, north of Jericho, Palestine’s Wafa news agency is reporting.

The victim sustained multiple injuries and had to be taken to a hospital, Wafa said.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers and settlers since October 7 in the occupied West Bank.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, has shared images from Khan Younis and Rafah taken by one of its staff members in April and May.

They show destroyed buildings and rubble-filled streets across the two southern Gaza cities, which like other parts of the enclave have faced heavy Israeli bombardment.

The images “offer a glimpse into the campaign of annihilation waged by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war”, MSF wrote on social media.

“We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”

📷These images, taken in Khan Younis and Rafah by one of our staff in April and May, offer a glimpse into the campaign of annihilation waged by the Israeli army in #Gaza since the start of the war.

We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/rcRLYwuVWS

— MSF International (@MSF) June 7, 2024

Doctors in Gaza say as many as 3,000 Palestinian children have lost their limbs in Israel’s war.

Watch our video report below:

The vast majority of casualties brought to the hospitals are either children or women.

We have had children across the Gaza Strip for the past eight months murdered at a record number, given the intense bombing campaign. They’re targeting entire families inside residential homes or evacuation zones or even when they are trying to evacuate from one place to another.

[Gaza officials] are documenting the cases of many children inside the evacuation zones who have been separated from their parents.

In fact, there’s one case here at the hospital who has not been with his parents for the past six months. Nobody knows anything about his parents or where they are.

Now add to this trauma the lack of basic supplies – food and medical supplies – and the proper environment for children to grow socially, economically and intellectually. It does not exist for them.

This intense bombing campaign has created conditions for a miserable life for years to come.

An opinion poll conducted by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 found that 62 percent of those questioned would not vote for a party that supports a continued government under Benjamin Netanyahu.

Additionally, 56 percent of those Israelis polled believe that the government should approve a prisoner swap deal that would see Israeli captives held in Gaza exchanged for Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, and 56 percent believe that Netanyahu’s main consideration when considering any such deal is politics.

Protesters demanding elections to replace Netanyahu and for a deal that would free the captives have filled the streets of Israel’s major cities on a weekly basis for months now.

Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official who resigned last year over the organisation’s response to the Gaza war, says the world body deleted Israel from its so-called blacklist for years due to the pressure campaign.

The push by Israel and its allies resulted in an annual report on human rights violations against children in armed conflict that “had been broadly discredited”, Mokhiber wrote on X.

The UN report compiles “a list of parties engaging in violations against children”, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals.

“It took a new world record for child slaughter to compel the UN to include Israel this time,” Mokhiber said.

The UN has for years, under pressure from Israel & its western allies, deleted Israel from this list before publication, to the point that the report had been broadly discredited. It took a new world record for child slaughter to compel the UN to include Israel this time. https://t.co/GrwlzvaHmt

— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) June 7, 2024

Riyad Mansour says “Israel has evaded accountability for its crimes against Palestinian children for decades now”.

This lack of accountability, the Palestinian envoy to the UN said in a social media post, allowed Israel to “intensify its crimes against them in a violation of all norms and of the principles of legality, morality and humanity”.

“The United Nations decision to add Israel on the list of violators of children’s rights, often referred to as the ‘list of shame’, will not bring back tens of thousands of our children who were killed by Israel over decades and will not restore normal life for the children who were permanently disabled by its actions,” Mansour said.

“But it is an important step in the right direction towards ending the double standards and the culture of impunity Israel has enjoyed for far too long and that left our children vulnerable to its consequences.”

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says there were no injuries or damage report as a result of the antiship ballistic missile launches.

US forces destroyed four drones and two antiship ballistic missiles in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, CENTCOM said in a statement shared on X.

CENTCOM said it also destroyed a drone launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen into the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and a Houthi patrol boat in the Red Sea.

The Houthis – who control Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and present themself as the country’s official armed forces – have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war on Gaza.

June 7 Red Sea Update

In the past 24 hours, Iranian-backed Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen over the Red Sea. There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or commercial ships.

Additionally, U.S.… pic.twitter.com/HKR9TiOuAx

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 7, 2024

The director of the Government Media Office in Gaza, Ismail al-Thawabta, has provided an update on the deadly Israeli strike on the UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

He said Israel killed 40 displaced people, including 14 children and nine women.

The White House says it is still awaiting an official response from Hamas to the latest ceasefire proposal for the Gaza conflict, laid out last week by President Joe Biden.

Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss the issue during a meeting tomorrow.