Israel was outraged by the speech of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres; Israel’s permanent representative Gilad Erdan said that he was out of touch with reality and called for his resignation:
“A UN Secretary-General who expresses understanding for a campaign of mass murder of children, women and the elderly is unfit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately.”
This reaction from Israel came after Guterres, at an open debate in the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, said that the Hamas attack “… did not happen in a vacuum, it was the result of occupation, settlement construction, economic blockade, destruction of houses, and that hope for a just resolution to the conflict is fading.”
Eli Cohen, Israel’s Foreign Minister, said he would no longer meet with António Guterres in light of the worsening Palestinian-Israeli conflict:
“After October 7, there is no room left for a balanced approach. Hamas must be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Guterres said in his speech that the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the “horrific and unprecedented terrorist attacks” carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7, and demanded the immediate release of all hostages. But he stressed that “these horrific attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The UN Secretary-General expressed deep concern at the “clear violations of international humanitarian law,” calling the constant Israeli bombing of Gaza and the level of destruction and civilian casualties “alarming.” He noted that the protection of civilians “is of paramount importance in any armed conflict”: “Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields.” Guterres criticized Israel without directly naming it:
“Protecting civilians does not mean ordering the evacuation of more than a million people to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine, no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.”
The Secretary General believes that “the only realistic basis for genuine peace and stability” in the Middle East is a two-state solution. The UN Security Council has not yet adopted a resolution in connection with Israel’s war against Hamas.
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