The Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres added Israel to a global list of violations against children.
Israel's U.N. envoy Gilad Erdan said he was officially notified of the decision on Friday. The global list is included in a report on children and armed conflict that is due to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council on June 14.
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision would impact the country's relations with the United Nations.
"I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the Secretary-General," said Erdan. "Israel's army is the most moral army in the world, so this immoral decision will only aid the terrorists and reward Hamas."
The Israeli military has been carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza, destroying schools, refugee camps, U.N. shelters, hospitals and aid convoys, killing over 36,000 people, mostly women and children.
Guterres spokesperson Stephane Dujarric declined to comment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently accused of carrying out genocide in Gaza, said in a statement that the U.N. had "added itself to the “black list of history.”
Guterres' annual report to the 15-member Security Council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals.
It was not immediately clear what violations Israel's military had been accused of committing.
The list is split into two: parties that have put in place measures to protect children and parties that have not. Erdan said he was told Israel had been included on the list of parties that had not put in place adequate measures to protect children.
The report is compiled by Virginia Gamba, Guterres' special representative for children and armed conflict. The list attached to the report aims to shame parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children.
Gazan children are bearing the brunt of hunger in the Palestinian territory with nearly 10,000 suffering from different levels of malnutrition due to Israel’s blockade. One in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main U.N. agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said.
Israel's brutal war on Gaza has displaced nearly its entire 2.3 million-person population, caused a starvation crisis, flattened most of the enclave.
