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Israel Denies UN Officials Visas as Rivalry Intensifies
The UN chief Antonio Guterres Tuesday said the Hamas attacks on 7 October – in which more than 1,400 were killed in Israel – did not occur “in a vacuum”.
The comments drew angry comments from Israel’s foreign minister, who said there “can be no cause for such a massacre”.
Now Israel says it will refuse visas to key UN officials.
“We need to shock the UN,” Israel Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told Israeli media.
He said the UN lead on humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths wanted to come to Israel – and had been refused.
“I, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed them of the refusal,” said Erdan.
“He will not be able to come here to the region. Their agencies constantly need to bring in new people, certainly at a time like now. They will be refused.”
UK PM Rishi Sunak also rejected the ‘vacuum’ comment by Guterres. “Obviously we don’t agree with that characterisation put forward,” a spokesperson for Sunak said Wednesday.
“We are clear that there is and can be no justification for Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack which was driven by hatred and ideology.”
In the same breath, a spokesperson for the German government said it does have confidence in Guterres in light of his comments.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, Wednesday revealed Guterres asked to speak to PM Benjamin Netanyahu twice since 7 October – but Netanyahu “refused to accept his call”.
Erdan also said agencies of the UN have created “a false picture” of the situation on the ground, accepting claims about Gaza even though “everyone knows” it is controlled by Hamas.
He said the next steps should be to expel “hostile UN officials” from Israel who present a false picture of what is going on.
Israel has carried out weeks of intense bombardment of the densely populated Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities, which it says killed some 1,400 people.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the air strikes, including 2,913 children.
“Behind every announced number, there is a known human being with a name and an identity,” ministry spokesman Dr Ashraf al-Qidra said. He urged those who doubted its figures to examine its methodology.
Humanitarian supplies are critically low but world powers failed at the United Nations to agree on how to call for a lull to the fighting to deliver significant amounts of aid. Mass graves have begun to be used as the civilian toll has mounted.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 74 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies had crossed from Egypt since Saturday, a small fraction of Gaza’s peacetime needs. Israel has cut off electricity as well as fuel for pumps and generators, saying Hamas would just divert it.
Two Egyptian security sources have told Reuters that any scaling-up of aid will be linked to Hamas’s willingness to free hostages. Israel has not confirmed this, saying that it fears Hamas will smuggle weapons in.
Additional sources: BBC & Reuters
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