On September 29, 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to the United Nations focusing on the Iranian threat and the most recent Israel–Gaza conflict.
Netanyahu reported in his speech that Israel had justly defended itself against terror tunnels and rocket attacks and had no intention in targeting innocent civilians.
He mentioned that Israel " was doing everything to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties" by sending text messages, dropping flyers, making phone calls and announcing warnings on television.
Furthermore, he blamed the Hamas for deliberately placing rockets next to Palestinian children in order to create images of horror for the press.
He called for the support and recognition of the free and independent State of Palestine and for an end to the Israeli blockade and he blamed Israel for creating the "largest prison in the world for nearly two million Palestinian citizens".
He criticized that Israel had been acting as a state above the law with "impunity and absolving it of any accountability or punishment for its policies, aggression and defiance of the international will and legitimacy", therefore creating a ground for the rise of extremism, hate and terrorism in Palestine.
The shooting was explained by the IDF by stateing that the attack was aiming to kill three Jihad terrorists who were passing by the school on their motorcycles.
Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict condemn this as a grave violation of international law.
[11] Before the ground offensive began on July 17 the Human Rights Watch documented airstrikes which killed 30 civilians, 11 of them children.
The Israeli military stated that they attacked because they had "identified Hamas structure" but targeted the boys (age 10 to 13) by accident, as "fleeing fighters."
Navi Pillay a high commissioner for human rights criticized at an emergency debate at the UNHRC in Geneva that Israel had not done enough to protect civilians.
She highlights, that the killing of civilians in Gaza, included dozens of children and had led to concerns over Israel's foreign policy and its respect for proportionality.