Israel has said the “time has come to teach the United Nations a lesson” by banning UN officials from visiting the country – in a row over remarks from secretary-general Antonio Guterres that the deadly 7 October attack by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum” and had to be seen in the context of decades of occupation of the Palestinians.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting, Mr Guterrres said that “It is important to … recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” However, he added that the grievances of the Palestinian people could not justify “the horrifying and unprecedented October 7 acts of terror”.
Mr Guterres also condemned "clear violations of international humanitarian law," calling Israel's constant bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza in response to the attack, and the level of destruction and civilian casualties, "alarming." He said the Hamas attacks “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. The remarks have sparked a furious reaction from Israeli officials. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called for Mr Guterres to resign directly after the speech , describing it as “shocking”. A statement from the Israeli foreign ministry accused Mr Guterres of “supporting the monstrous violence of the Hamas terrorists”.
Escalating the row on Wednesday, he told Israeli 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.”
The UN is heavily-involved in providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Mr Guterres has consistently called for a ceasefire and for an end to civilian deaths. It is not clear how far the visa ban extends within the UN hierarchy. A large number of UN workers, for instance, are employed by, the UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA.
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed on 7 October, while at least 5,791 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by airstrikes, according to the local, Hamas-run ministry.
“Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields,” the secretary-general said in his address, without mentioning Hamas. He added that it “does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself”. Israel has issued an evacuation order calling on Palestinians to move from northern Gaza to southern Gaza as it prepares for an expected ground invasion.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN called Mr Guterres speech ‘shocking’— (Getty Images)
Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen also criticised the comments. “There is no cause for this, and shame on him,” he said. He also said in a tweet via X, formerly Twitter: “I will not meet with the UN secretary-general. After the 7 October massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!”
However, the US secretary of state, Antony Bliken did meet with Mr Guterres after he had spoken and as other countries that spoke in the UN debate were critical of Israel’s operation against Hamas in Gaza.
Speaking himself at the UN security council on Tuesday night, Mr Blinken said the US supported a humanitarian lull. Blinken said that Hamas must cease using people as human shields and Israel must take all precautions to avoid harm to civilians.
“It means food, medicine and water and other assistance must flow into Gaza and to the areas people need them,” Mr Blinken said. “It means civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way. It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.”
When asked to expand on Mr Blinken’s comments, national security council spokesperson John Kirby said: “We want to see that all measure of protection for civilians and pauses in operation is a tool and a tactic that can do that for temporary periods of time.” He added that the difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire is “a question of duration and scope and size and that kind of thing”.
Mr Guterres issued a statement via X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning, reiterating his position and repeating some of his speech from the previous night.
“The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas,” he said. “Those horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
In the UK, the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said that Mr Guterres was “wrong” and he should retract his comments about Hamas's assault if it implied any justification for the killing of Israelis.
Mr Jenrick also said the UK did not support Mr Guterres's assessment of breaches of international law, telling Sky News: "We don't believe Israel has broken international law.
"There is a clear right in international law for a nation to defend itself, and that is what Israel is doing."
A spokesperson for prime minister Rishi Sunak said that Britain would consider discussing a humanitarian pause in Gaza to facilitate aid coming into the territory, but does not want a wholesale ceasefire as that would only benefit Hamas.
