UN Secretary General Rejects Israel’s Accusation of having Justified Hamas Attack, Says “It was the Opposite”

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: The United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Wednesday rejected Israel’s demand for his resignation accusing him of justifying Hamas attacks on Israel in his statement to the Security Council.

“I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement … as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite,” he said. He added, “I believe it’s necessary to set the record straight – especially out of respect for the victims and their families.”

But he held Israel guilty of violating international law in targeting Gaza while urging an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to bring in relief. “I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law,” he told a UN Security Council session, without explicitly naming Israel.

Antonio Guterres has personally travelled to the crossing between Egypt and Gaza in a push to let in assistance and expressed concern that shortage of fuel could force the UN volunteers to stop humanitarian aids. “But it is a drop of aid in an ocean of need. In addition, our UN fuel supplies in Gaza will run out in a matter of days. That would be another disaster,” he said, continuing, “To ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of hostages, I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”

Fuming over his remarks which Israel claimed amounted to “justifying” the Hamas attack, Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen cancelled a meeting with the UN chief and angrily pointed his finger at him during the session while reading graphic accounts of civilians killed in the October 7 assault by Hamas.

Hamas stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians. More than 6,500 Palestinians, also mainly civilians, have been killed across Gaza in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for the attacks.

Rapidly expanding Israel airstrikes across Gaza is estimated to have killed at least 700 people in the last couple of days as medical facilities across the territory were forced to close because of bombing damage and a lack of power, health officials said on Tuesday.

The soaring death toll from Israel’s escalating bombardment was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could signal an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli ground forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected offensive into the territory aimed at crushing Hamas. On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they were preparing to launch rockets into Israel and striking command centres and a Hamas tunnel shaft.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been under increasing bombardment and running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating October 7 attack by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said the attacks killed at least 704 people over the past day, including 305 children and 173 women. More than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including some 2,300 minors, the ministry said, without giving a detailed breakdown.

The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “specific pauses” were needed in Israel’s war with Hamas to allow aid into Gaza but again stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. Facing calls from some opposition lawmakers during weekly questions in parliament to urge Israel to hold a ceasefire, Mr. Sunak reiterated it “has the right to defend itself under international law.” However, he said London had consistently called for the conditions to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip and for British nationals and hostages kidnapped by Hamas militants to be brought out.

“We recognise for all of that to happen there has to be a safer environment which of course necessitates specific pauses as distinct from a ceasefire,” he told MPs. Mr. Sunak said the pauses had been discussed “with partners” at the United Nations on October 24 and would continue to be discussed. Mr. Sunak’s spokesman told reporters later that a ceasefire would “only serve to benefit Hamas” while “humanitarian pauses, which are temporary, which are limited in scope, can be an operational tool.”

The spokesman also said the U.K. PM disagreed with UN chief Antonio Guterres, who had earlier said that Hamas’ attacks did not occur “in a vacuum,” pointing to “56 years of suffocating occupation” endured by the Palestinians. “We are clear there is, can be, no justification for Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack… which was driven by hatred and ideology.”

In retaliation, Jordan’s Queen Rania accused Western leaders of a “glaring double standard” for not condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza. “The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world,” she said. “When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack,” she said. “But what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.”

A spokesperson for the Israel Defence Force (IDF) said Israel did not want war on two fronts but the country was ready for it. Regarding the situation on the border with Lebanon, the spokesperson says, “We have evacuated around 30 communities in the northern border with Lebanon to keep them from harm’s way.”

The IDF also says that sending troops into Gaza is not an easy decision but they have the “know-how” to implement it. “Sending young men and women into Gaza is not an easy option. Not declaring when ground operation into Gaza will start but we have all the knowledge and know-how to implement that,” the spokesperson says.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the United States of “directing” strikes Israel has been carrying out on Hamas in Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks. “America is a definite accomplice of criminals,” said Khamenei during a speech in Tehran. “The United States is in some way directing the crime that is being committed in Gaza.” Khamenei said the hands of Americans “were tainted with the blood of the oppressed, children, patients, women and others”.

Iran, which financially and militarily backs Hamas, hailed the October 7 attacks on Israel as a “success” but insisted it was not involved in the onslaught. “Let everyone know that in this matter and future matters, the Palestinian nation is victorious and the future world is the world of Palestine, not the world of the Zionist regime,” Khamenei said, referring to Israel. The remarks come after a warning from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on October 24 that the U.S. would respond “decisively” to any attack by Tehran proxies, as tensions rise over the conflict.

The Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest comments yet on the Gaza conflict, said on Wednesday the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands and people. Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party, Mr. Erdogan also called for an immediate ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinian forces and said Muslim countries must act together to secure a lasting peace in the region.

“Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people,” he said, using an Arabic word denoting those who fight for their faith.

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