Israel has demanded that the United Nations’ secretary-general retract comments he made about the Gaza war and apologize.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a speech to the Security Council on October 24 that he condemned unequivocally Hamas's deadly attacks in Israel two weeks ago but that they "did not happen in a vacuum".
Addressing a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday, Mr Guterres urged all parties in the war to respect and protect civilians.
"I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets," UN chief said, according to the BBC.
He then told the council that it was "important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum", adding: "The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation."
He described how Palestinians had "seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished".
"But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
He expressed alarm at Israel's continuous bombardment of Gaza, as well as the level of civilian casualties and "wholesale destruction of neighborhoods".
Without naming Hamas, he stressed that “protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields.”
And without naming Israel, he said: "Protecting civilians 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."
The UN chief also appealed for a humanitarian ceasefire to make the delivery of aid to Gaza easier and safer, and to facilitate the release of the hostages.
Ambassador Gilad Erdan, Israeli Permanent Representative to the United Nations, accused him of "justifying terrorism" and called for his immediate resignation.
Visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen criticized Mr. Guterres in his speech to the Security Council, asking him: "In what world do you live?"
Fox News reports that Mr. Guterres yesterday rejected "misrepresentations" of his statement.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says his statements regarding the Israel-Hamas war were misrepresented on Wednesday, denying that he justified terror attacks against Israel.
"I am shocked by the misrepresentations of some of my statements yesterday in the Security Council. As if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite," said Mr. Guterres. "In the beginning of my [statement] yesterday, I clearly stated, and I quote, ‘I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnaping of civilians or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.’
But Ambassador Erdan said in reply that the UN chief "once again distorts and twists reality", and called for his resignation.
"It is a disgrace to the UN that the Secretary-General does not retract his words and is not even able to apologize for what he said yesterday. He must resign," Erdan said in a Wednesday statement, according to Fox News.
