Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. Photo: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

JNS.org – UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov pledged over the ‎weekend to prevent Hamas, the terrorist ‎group that rules the Gaza Strip, from using UN funds and facilities for terror purposes. ‎

His remarks followed an appeal by Israeli Public ‎Security Minister Gilad Erdan, which detailed how ‎Hamas “is educating and training children in Gaza to ‎carry out terrorist attacks by turning terrorists ‎into role models.”

“Unfortunately, it seems that UN agencies ‎subscribe to Hamas’s narrative,” Erdan wrote in a letter to the ‎UN envoy. ‎

In the letter, the Israeli minister asked Mladenov ‎to denounce Hamas’ “terrorism summer camps” in Gaza, saying that “it is ‎imperative that the United Nations ensure that ‎neither its funds nor its facilities are used to ‎trample on children’s rights in any way.”

‎“If the UN wants to protect the children in Gaza,” Erdan wrote, “‎it must first and foremost protect them from Hamas.”

The United Nations took nearly a month to respond to the ‎appeal.‎

‎“UN offices and organizations operating in the ‎Gaza Strip share your concern that children should ‎not be exposed to violence,” Mladenov ‎noted in his ‎reply.‎ ‎“‎The UN takes precautions to ensure that no UN ‎infrastructure or funding is somehow linked to such ‎actions.”

While the envoy reiterated the UN’s condemnation ‎of ‎“terrorism summer camps,” his reply did not ‎single out Hamas, but rather simply noted ‎that “children belong to schools, in their homes and ‎on playgrounds, and they should not be encouraged to ‎participate in violence of any kind.‎”

“The UN will not hesitate to demand that ‎children’s rights be respected by all Gaza ‎officials, including Hamas,” he wrote. ‎ ‎