The Row between the UN and Israel Deepens over Gaza Attacks
A row broke out in New York on Tuesday night, as the United Nations (UN) Security Council met to discuss the Israel-Gaza war.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the Hamas attacks on 7 October – in which more than 1,400 people were killed – did not occur “in a vacuum”, pointing to “56 years of occupation” by Israel of the Palestinians.
The comments drew an angry response from Israel’s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, who said there can be “no cause for such a massacre”.
He asked the UN general secretary in what world he lives and later threaten to cancel his meeting with the UN Chief.
Addressing the UN, the secretary-general then went on to say the attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel, adding “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Guterres should resign, calling the speech “shocking”, saying that “he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner”.
Guterres later highlighted other parts of his speech, writing on X (formally Twitter) that the “grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas”, and that “horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
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Israels ambassador to the UN has called for Guterres to resign, after the secretary-general’s address in New York yesterday raised the issue of what Guterres described as “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza and he said the “appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
Earlier a UK government minister said he did not agree with Guterres’ assessment.
Israeli media reports that Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said on army radio:
Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.
Israel has called on UN secretary general Guterres to resign after he said that the“appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, and spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza.”
Guterres had said “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
