Eli Cohen, the Israeli Foreign Minister, asked United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to resign for criticising Israel last month.
Cohen, who is making almost regular visits to the international committee of the Red Cross and World Health Organisation to seek support, attended the UN office in Geneva on Tuesday.
According to the Times of Israel, the heated response came from the Israeli minister after Guterres dropped a comment, stating that while nothing justifies the crimes committed by Hamas, they did not occur in a vacuum.
In his response at the press conference in Geneva, Cohen said, “UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres does not deserve to lead the United Nations. Guterres did not promote any peace process in the region… Guterres, like all the free nations, should say clearly and loudly, ‘Free Gaza from Hamas”.
An enraged-looking Guterres mentioned, without naming Israel, that he had stated explicitly on Tuesday that no Palestinian grievance could excuse the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas. This particular statement from him came in October last month.
Spat between The UN and Israel Continues
The UN Secretary-General has been making comments on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Still, in a speech last month, he voiced his anguish over the bombing of a convoy of ambulances outside Al-Shifa hospitals in Gaza.
Following the incident, he went into more detail about his feelings on social media, writing, “I am horrified by the killings of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza.” He continued by stating his strong disagreement with the actions taken by the Israeli government.
Pointing to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with reports coming out on the shortage of food, water, medicine, fuel for hospitals, and a short supply of water plants, Gutters made additional comments, saying that the situation in Gaza must be looked into and the supply of all the needed aid should meet its criteria, with a subtle hint at Israel’s decisions to restrict it.
Responding to Guterres’s statement, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, took a dig at the Secretary-General for his hasty remarks on Israel without the proper knowledge of the interior situation. His response showed how Israel feels to be accused of war crimes while Hamas made the first attack.
Erdan, further called out Guterres and asked him to resign as well. The remarks against the UN Chief “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder” is what Erdan added to his comments.
following the incident, Erdan also told that his nation will stop granting visas to UN employees. he further mentioned that Israeli Army Radio channel had already turned down an application from Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The back-and-forth exchange of dialogues between the UN Chief and all Israeli representatives took an unsettling turn as Israel defined Guterres’s remarks as false claims about aid not reaching Gaza and ignoring the potential threat those ambulances were carrying with wounded Hamas terrorists trying to escape through the Rafah border.
Nonetheless, Cohen addressed a meeting today with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, demanding that the committee “work through all channels” to secure visits to the hostages held by Hamas.
The foreign minister further added that his nation expects the Red Cross to put the issue on top of its priority list and make sure to use all levels of pressure and not take a single pause until visits to the hostages and assessing their conditions to authorise medical support are possible.
Cohen stood firmly by his demands while stating his view on the matter. However, no further comments have been made by the UN or other international committees.
