Video: Israeli envoy, UN official embroiled in heated exchange at hearing on children in conflict — What Happened | Today’s news
Tensions flared at the United Nations on Friday when a public hearing escalated into a heated verbal confrontation between Israel’s ambassador and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
During an event in New York to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, Israeli envoy Danny Danon called for the resignation of Pramila Patten, accusing her of bias after a report she prepared placed Israel on a UN blacklist for the first time for alleged violations, Reuters reports.
You have given in to the Secretary-General’s obsession with targeting Israel,” Danon said, referring to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The independent representative of the UN, Vanessa Frazier, Guterres’ representative for children and armed conflict and the author of another report that also blacklisted Israel, intervened by raising a procedural objection. She called on Danone to stop the “personal attacks” and said she had “proven evidence”.
Danon then told Frazier to shut up, declaring: “We are a member country and you work for the United Nations and now you will be quiet. You will be quiet … you and your shameful report,” he said.
Frazier, Malta’s former ambassador to the UN, presented her report this week on behalf of António Guterres, warning that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global blacklist for alleged violations of children’s rights. The UN secretary-general also expressed concern over what he described as a “staggering” increase in violence against Palestinian children.
Israel is already included in the report’s annex with a so-called “list of shame” for alleged violations.
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After Patten’s report was published last month, Danon condemned it as a “new low”, while Israel’s foreign ministry said it would cut all ties with Guterres, who is due to complete his 10-year term at the end of the year.
Both reports also blacklist Israel’s adversary Hamas.
Government forces ‘main perpetrators’ of violence against children in conflict: UN
A record number of nearly 25,000 conflict-affected children were subjected to serious violations last year, including killings, sexual violence and forced recruitment, a new UN report says. According to the AP, for the first time government forces, rather than armed groups, emerged as the main perpetrators.
Guterres’ annual report, published this week, contains a blacklist of violators including government forces from eight countries and 67 armed groups across 16 nations and territories.
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The total number of rights violations, which also include kidnappings, attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian aid, rose for the fourth consecutive year to 38,558, the report said. Based on verified data, the UN found that 24,174 children were affected, about one-third of them girls, with thousands experiencing multiple abuses.
“The scale and persistence of these violations require more than recognition — they require solutions,” Frazier noted in an analysis of the report.
It called on the 193 UN member states to respond to the findings, urging them to “recognise that protecting children is not an aspiration but a duty, and that decisions taken today will shape a future they may or may not claim”.
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For the first time in the 30 years since the UN began monitoring violations of children’s rights in conflict, the report said “government forces were responsible for the majority of serious violations.”
According to the 2025 list, Israel’s military and its security forces recorded the highest number of violations at 12,445. Congo followed with 4,114 cases, while Myanmar, Somalia and armed groups in Nigeria each reported more than 2,000 violations. Also included in the blacklist were government forces from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, as well as Russian armed forces in Ukraine.
The report further cited Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as having carried out attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, sparking the conflict in Gaza. The UN also noted that Israeli settlers were responsible for 326 serious violations last year and warned that continued incidents could lead to their blacklisting.
He added that government forces were the “main perpetrators” of 6,266 child killings – a 34% increase from the previous year – as well as 7,958 injuries.
