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”.
