Israel violated global child rights treaty in Gaza : UN Child Rights Committee / Reuters

Bragi Gudbandsson, CRC Committee

The UN Committee on Child Rights on Thursday accused Israel of severe breaches of the Convention on Child Rights and said that Israel's military actions in Gaza had a catastrophic impact on them and are among the worst violations in recent history.

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Of the some 41,000 people killed so far in Gaza, at least 11,355 are children and thousands more have been injured.

"The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history," Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice chair of the Committee.  "I don't think we have seen before, a violation that is so massive, as we are seeing in Gaza now...These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see," he said.

Israel ratified the CRC in 1991.  Its diplomatic mission in Geneva  accused the committee of having a "politically-driven agenda".

Israel sent a large delegation to the CRC Committee's hearings in early September and argued that the treaty did not apply in Gaza or the West Bank.  The delegation said that it was committed to respecting international humanitarian law.

The Committee praised Israel for attending but said it "deeply regrets the State party's repeated denial of its legal obligations".

During the hearings, the U.N. experts also asked many questions about Israeli children, including details about those taken hostage by Hamas to which Israel's delegation gave extensive responses.