Angry Israel to deny visas to UN officials after Guterres's supportive remarks on Hamas attacks
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A day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that Hamas' attack on Israel "did not happen in a vacuum," Tel Aviv has responded by declaring that it will reject visas to UN personnel.
Guterres made the statements during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday. "It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum," Secretary of State Antonio Guterres stated.
In addition, three Palestinians were slain in the West Bank during a nocturnal raid. The armed Palestinians "fired and hurled explosive devices" at IDF personnel in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, according to the IDF. Following that, the soldiers replied by launching a drone attack at them.
According to Israel's UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, the action follows Guterres' words that "appeared to justify Hamas's brutal assault on Israel."
"Due to his remarks, we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives," Erdan said, according to The Times of Israel. "We have already denied Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths a visa." "Now is the time to teach them a lesson," he continued.
The remarks irritated Israel, which demanded Guterres to quit.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen canceled a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Minister Benny Gantz called the UN leader a "terror apologist."
Guterres retracted his words after they sparked criticism. On Wednesday, he wrote on X, "The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify Hamas's horrific attacks." These atrocities cannot justify collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 25, 2023
Those horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, Hamas reported that over 80 people were killed in midnight attacks on Gaza. According to the rebel group's statement, "more than 80 people were martyred and hundreds were wounded in massacres committed by occupation raids" overnight.