United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his “shock” on Wednesday at what he called a “distortion” of his statements on Hamas, after Israel called on him to step down.
On Tuesday, during a meeting of the UN Security Council, Guterres denounced “violations of international law” in Gaza, after underlining at the beginning of his speech that nothing justifies “the horrible attacks of Hamas”, in reference to the operations launched from the movement on the territory on 7 October. In Israel he raised the alarm against the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
He stressed that “any party involved in the armed conflict is not above this law”, without explicitly referring to Israel. He stated: “For 56 years, the Palestinian people have been subjected to a suffocating occupation” and stressed the importance of recognizing that “Hamas’ attacks did not come out of nowhere.”
He called for an immediate ceasefire, noting that at least 35 UN workers had been killed there.
In response to these statements, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on Guterres to resign and said in a post on Platform X (formerly Twitter) that the UN Secretary-General “showed understanding towards the terrorism and murder.” This was rejected by Germany, confirming its confidence in Guterres.
On Wednesday, Guterres rejected accusations that he had justified Hamas attacks on Israel in his statement before the Security Council.
He told reporters in a short speech: “I was shocked by the distortion of some of my statements … as if I was justifying the terrorist acts of Hamas. This is not true. It was the opposite.”
And he added: “I think it is necessary to put things right, above all out of respect for the victims and their families.”
He said he stressed that “the complaints of the Palestinian people do not justify the abominable attacks by Hamas, and therefore I carried forward my statement and revised all my positions regarding the crisis in the Middle East.”
He added: “Nothing justifies the killing and kidnapping of civilians or the firing of missiles at civilian targets.”
Criticizing his position on the Gaza war…an Israeli official calls on Guterres to resign
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on Antonio Guterres to resign immediately, saying in a blog post on Platform during a Security Council session on Tuesday.