Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen denounced the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, after Guterres implied that Israel provoked Hamas’s terrorist attacks.
“As we meet here today, young babies, children, are held in Gaza. This is beyond imagination. A living nightmare,” Cohen said. “Mr. Secretary General, in what world do you live? Definitely, this is not our world.”
The United Nations has supported a “humanitarian cease-fire” since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 Jews and injuring more than 4,500 Israelis. At a security council meeting on Tuesday, Guterres tried to justify Hamas’s attack.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum” Guterres said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. 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.”
Guterres initially released a statement on October 7 that condemned Hamas’s attacks against Israelis, but he also said that “violence cannot provide a solution to the conflict, and that only through negotiation leading to a two-State solution can peace be achieved.” Two days later, Guterres announced that he was “deeply distressed by today’s announcement that Israel will initiate a complete siege of the Gaza Strip.”
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before these hostilities; now it will only deteriorate exponentially,” he said. “Medical equipment, food, fuel and other humanitarian supplies are desperately needed, along with access for humanitarian personnel. Relief and entry of essential supplies into Gaza must be facilitated and the UN will continue efforts to provide aid to respond to these needs.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called Guterres’s statements “shocking,” and demanded the secretary-general’s resignation.
“The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN,” Erdan posted on X. “I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.”