Israel has demanded that the UN Secretary General quit after he stated that the October 7 Hamas massacre, which killed 1,400 people, “did not happen in a vacuum.”
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” Guterres told the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, according to Israeli outlet Haaretz, after the Hamas-led Ministry of Health in Gaza reported more than 700 Palestinians killed in 24 hours of Israeli airstrikes, the highest daily death toll since the bombardment began.
“But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
After the statement, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan called Guterres’ speech “shocking” on X, formerly Twitter, saying “the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region.”
“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,” he added on the social media platform.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced on X he would no longer meet with Guterres.
It occurred after the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health announced that over 700 Palestinians had been killed in 24 hours of Israeli air strikes, the largest daily death toll since the onslaught began.
According to the New York Times, Israeli attacks have killed over 5,700 Palestinians since the war began.
Guterres, 74, succeeded Ban Ki-Moon as the United Nations’ ninth secretary-general in October 2016. He was the leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party and served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 until 2002.