The foreign minister slammed the world body’s leader after the latter blamed Jerusalem for the suffering in Gaza.
By Joshua Mzrks, JNS
Under the leadership of Secretary-General António Guterres, the United Nations has become “an antisemitic and anti-Israel body that shelters and emboldens terror,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
The X post came in response to Guterres’s visit earlier in the day to the Sinai-Gaza border, in which he called a long line of waiting humanitarian aid trucks on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing “tragic” and “a moral outrage.”
Guterres added that “nothing justifies the horrific attacks by Hamas and nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Israel has been fighting a war for nearly six months against the terrorist group in Gaza after its men led a mass invasion of the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 mostly civilians, wounding thousands more and kidnapping 253, of which over 100 remain in Gaza.
Guterres also called for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
Katz tweeted, “the UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres, stood today on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and blamed Israel for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, without condemning in any way the Hamas-ISIS terrorists who plunder humanitarian aid, without condemning @UNRWA that cooperates with terrorists—and without calling for the immediate, unconditional release of all Israeli hostages. Under his leadership, the @UN has become an antisemitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror.”
the UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres, stood today on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and blamed Israel for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, without condemning in any way the Hamas-ISIS terrorists who plunder humanitarian aid, without condemning @UNRWA that…
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) March 23, 2024
Hamas has been stealing around 60% of the aid entering the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem rejects accusations that it is holding up the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip.
The Jewish state has charged publicly that at least 12 U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) workers participated in the Oct. 7 massacres. It has also alleged that thousands of UNRWA workers have direct ties to Hamas and other Gazan terrorist groups.
After suspending financial support for UNRWA, some countries have resumed aid. Washington, UNRWA’s biggest benefactor, has not resumed funding the embattled U.N. agency and President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $1.2 trillion government funding bill into law that extends the UNRWA funding freeze until March 2025.
The House of Representatives passed the package on Friday, and the Senate passed it early Saturday morning.
Katz praised the decision to extend the funding freeze for a year in a foreign ministry statement on Saturday.
“The historic ban on U.S. funding to UNRWA, which passed today with overwhelming bipartisan support, proves what we have known all along: UNRWA is part of the problem and cannot be part of the solution. UNRWA will not be part of Gaza after Hamas disappears from Gaza. Thousands of UNRWA employees are involved in Hamas’s terrorist activities and their facilities have been used for terrorist purposes. I call on other countries to follow the USA and ban funding to this organization,” he said.
“Our thanks to Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for their leadership and continued bipartisan support for Israel during our just war against the murderous Hamas terror regime,” Katz said.