Israel has said the “time has come to teach the United Nations a lesson” by banning UN officials from visiting the country – in a row over remarks from secretary-general Antonio Guterres that the deadly 7 October attack by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum” and had to be seen in the context of decades of occupation of the Palestinians.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Israel has said the “time has come to teach the United Nations a lesson” by banning UN officials from visiting the country – in a row over remarks from secretary-general Antonio Guterres that the deadly 7 October attack by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum” and had to be seen in the context of decades of occupation of the Palestinians.
Mr Guterres also condemned “clear violations of international humanitarian law,” calling Israel’s constant bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza in response to the attack, and the level of destruction and civilian casualties, “alarming.”
Escalating the row on Wednesday, he told Israeli Army Radio: “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives.
However, the US secretary of state, Antony Bliken did meet with Mr Guterres after he had spoken and as other countries that spoke in the UN debate were critical of Israel’s operation against Hamas in Gaza.
In the UK, the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said that Mr Guterres was “wrong” and he should retract his comments about Hamas’s assault if it implied any justification for the killing of Israelis.
A spokesperson for prime minister Rishi Sunak said that Britain would consider discussing a humanitarian pause in Gaza to facilitate aid coming into the territory, but does not want a wholesale ceasefire as that would only benefit Hamas.
The original article contains 861 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!