Jerusalem slams UN chief for omitting Hamas role in Gaza aid disruption, calls statement ‘a disgrace’.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a scathing response on Monday to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres following his statement regarding reports of Palestinian Arabs killed and injured while seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday,” Guterres said. “It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food.”
The Secretary-General called for “an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.” He further stated that “Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law to agree to and facilitate humanitarian aid. The unimpeded entry of assistance at scale to meet the enormous needs in Gaza must be restored immediately.”
Guterres emphasized that “the UN must be allowed to work in safety and security under conditions of full respect of humanitarian principles,” and reiterated his stance that “an immediate permanent, sustainable ceasefire” is necessary. “All hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally. This is the only path to ensuring security for all. There is no military solution to the conflict,” he concluded.
Responding forcefully, Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oren Marmorstein condemned Guterres’ omission of Hamas from his remarks. “What a disgrace. Even if you look very hard, there’s one word you won’t find in the Secretary-General’s statement: Hamas,” Marmorstein said.
He continued, “Not a word about the fact that Hamas is the one shooting civilians and trying to prevent them from collecting aid packages. Not a word about the fact that Hamas, as stated by US Special Envoy Witkoff, rejected yet another ceasefire proposal and the release of the hostages.”
“Does the UN really care about providing aid to the people in Gaza, or is it more focused on feeding Hamas and its war machine?” Marmorstein asked, sharply criticizing the UN’s approach.
“The real investigation that needs to be opened is why the UN continues to resist any attempt to provide aid directly to the people of Gaza,” he added.
Additional evidence supporting Israel’s position emerged Sunday, when IDF drone footage captured masked and armed individuals throwing rocks and firing at Gaza civilians attempting to collect looted humanitarian aid in southern Khan Yunis. The IDF accused Hamas of deliberately disrupting aid distribution efforts.
“Hamas is a brutal and murderous terrorist organization that is starving the residents of Gaza. Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent the successful distribution of food in Gaza,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
Earlier that day, the IDF refuted Hamas’s allegations that Israeli forces had fired at civilians near a humanitarian aid distribution point. According to an initial inquiry, IDF forces did not open fire at civilians within or near the distribution site, and reports suggesting otherwise were false.
The IDF added that it is working in cooperation with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and international aid organizations to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians, explicitly not to Hamas. “Hamas does everything in its power to undermine food distribution efforts in the Gaza Strip… Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that starves and endangers the population in order to preserve its control over the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated.
Security camera footage released by the GHF shortly after the alleged incident further debunked Hamas’s claims, showing no evidence of an attack at the distribution site. The IDF has urged the media to exercise caution when reporting information originating from Hamas, citing a pattern of misinformation in past incidents.
