UPDATE - Guterres adds Israeli army to global offenders list; Israel's UN envoy denounces decision

ADDS UN SPOKESMAN STEPHANE DUJARRIC'S REMARKS

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added Israeli army to a global list of offenders who have committed violations against children, Israel's UN envoy Gilad Erdan said on Friday.

"I received the official notification about the Secretary-General's decision to put the IDF on the "blacklist" of countries and organizations that harm children," Erdan said on X.

"This is simply outrageous and wrong because Hamas has been using children for terrorism and uses schools and hospitals as military compounds," he said.

Erdan added he responded to the "shameful decision" of Guterres, and said that Israeli army is "the most moral in the world."

"The only one being blacklisted is the Secretary-General who incentivizes and encourages terrorism and is motivated by hatred towards Israel. The Secretary-General should be ashamed of himself!" he said.

Commenting on the incident, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at a news conference that the call was a "normal protocol" and that they "would not have gone public with this, had a video of a phone call not been released."

He said the call was a courtesy call "afforded to countries that are newly listed on the annex of the report," and it was "done to give those countries a heads up and avoid leaks."

Dujarric said Israeli envoy's social media share as "shocking and unacceptable," and said "frankly something I've never seen in my 24 years serving this organization."

"The ambassador was briefed on everything having to do with the situation that is ongoing in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians," he added.

Noting that the report is released every year on the request of the Security Council members, who he said had created such mechanism, Dujarric reaffirmed Guterres' position regarding the developments since Oct. 7, including those issues of "violations of international law, violation of human rights."

*Merve Aydogan contributed to the story