Israel will suspend visas for UN employees following comments made by Secretary-General António Guterres about the crisis in the Middle East, the country’s ambassador said this Wednesday (25).
Among his Tuesday remarks to the Security Council, Guterres said Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.”
“As a result of this, we will refuse visas to UN representatives,” said the ambassador Gilad Erdan to Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday.
Israel has already rejected a visa application from the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths .
“It’s time we teach them a lesson,” he said.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel’s criticism of Guterres was “unjustified” and represented a “lack of respect and conformity practiced by the occupying State against the United Nations.”
Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, has been unequivocal in his call to help Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“I reiterate the Secretary-General’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to alleviate the epic human suffering in Gaza,” he wrote on his social media on Tuesday (24).
“If we are to avoid any further descent into this humanitarian catastrophe, dialogue must continue,” he added
A CNN has contacted the UN for comment.
VIDEO – Analysis: Meeting opens crisis between UN and Israel
Guterres said Hamas’ attack on southern Israel came amid years of “suffocating occupation” suffered by Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces.
They “saw their lands constantly devoured by settlements and plagued by violence,” he added.
Hamas invaded parts of southern Israel earlier this month, killing at least 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200, according to Israeli authorities.
It represented the deadliest attack carried out by militants in Israel’s 75-year history and represented a stunning intelligence failure on the part of Israeli authorities. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 5,000 people in Gaza, including 2,055 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health..
Israel’s ferocious bombardment and total blockade of the Palestinian enclave have leveled entire neighborhoods, depleted the health system and endangered the lives of civilians who face severe dehydration and hunger.
Israel’s “collective punishment” of Gaza civilians amounts to a war crime, Amnesty International said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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