A draft of the UN's Children and Armed Conflict report for 2023 accused Israel of recruiting minors as human shields and combatants.

A draft of the report on incidents in 2022 includes the new accusation, which the Israeli Embassy to the UN called "strange," in its official rebuttal to the report. A final draft of the report is expected to be published in late June or early July.

The UN claimed that Israel recruited three Palestinian minors.

"These claims are not supported by any evidence that could be examined by the Israeli authorities," the Israeli embassy wrote. "According to our findings, this lack of evidence is due to the fact that no such cases took place in 2022 and that the claims are false. Israel expects to see these baseless claims removed from the final report."

Israel works to not be blacklisted in upcoming UN report

Israel has been working to ensure it is not blacklisted in the upcoming report, with ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week to submit the results of its examination of the UN's allegations.

Israel asked that its comments be reflected in a later draft of the report.

Another UN claim that Israel said is unfounded is the allegation that a Palestinian minor was abducted by settlers. The UN report provided few details of the incident, even after Israel asked for more information, and the IDF and...

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