Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon is urging the United Nations to include the death of prematurely delivered baby Amiad Yisrael in its annual Children and Armed Conflict report.
Danon contacted U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba to ask that her office's upcoming report on deaths of children in regional conflicts and wars include baby Amiad, who was delivered in an emergency cesarian section after his mother, Shira Ish-Ran, was seriously wounded in a terrorist shooting attack on Dec. 9.
Ish-Ran was 30 weeks pregnant at the time of the attack and sustained serious bullet wounds to her upper body. Amiad was delivered in critical condition, and although medical staff battled around the clock to save him, he died a few days later.
"Children in the Palestinians Authority are taught from a young age to hate Israel, through school textbooks that are full of lies and incitement, and through social media posts that encourage terrorism," Danon wrote to Gamba.
"It is not too long before they put these messages to action, sometimes by way of violence, as we saw in the Ofra attack.
"The brutal incident in Ofra that led to the death of a three-day-old baby should be noted in the U.N. report on 'Children and Armed Conflict,' alongside a clear, strong condemnation of Hamas' violent aggression against the citizens of Israel, which harms the safety of children and youth in the area," Danon wrote.
Meanwhile, Danon denied on Saturday recent reports that he had decided to resign his post as Israel's U.N. ambassador to run for a spot on the Likud list for the upcoming Knesset election.
Danon said he would not be leaving his U.N. seat and does not plan to run in the Likud primaries, which are likely to be held in late January or early February, ahead of the April 9 general election.
"The Israeli delegation to the U.N. under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to achieve unprecedented gains in the diplomatic arena," Danon said. "At this challenging time, I intend to continue advancing Israel's standing in the U.N., so I will not run in the upcoming [Likud] primaries."
Danon is slated to bring four other heads of U.N. delegations to Israel in January. The group is scheduled to visit Israel's northern border, where Israel recently launched a campaign to demolish attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah across the Lebanese border into Israeli territory.
