
A year ago, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in Israel but said in remarks to the Security Council that they " did not happen in a vacuum.” That phrase was immediately denounced by Israel and still looms over U.N. activities in the Middle East.
Outraged Israeli officials and civilians accused the U.N. chief of trying to justify the horrors that day, in which some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.