Israel's U.N. Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, urged that General Secretary Antonio Guterres must resign. Erdan was referring to Guterres' speech that day, where it was said Palestinian people had been 'subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.'
Israel's UN ambassador said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was 'not fit'A Cabinet minister today slammed the UN Secretary General after he 'justified' the Hamas terror attacks by saying they 'did not happen in a vacuum'.
'No-one, whether deliberately or otherwise, should be implying there is any justification for that,' he told ITV's Good Morning Britain. In a round of interviews this morning, the UK's immigration minister Robert Jenrick said it was 'wrong' to suggest there is any justification for the murder of 1,400 people including women and babies
The Israeli ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said the speech was 'shocking' and Mr Guterres was 'completely disconnected from the reality in our region'. Earlier, Israel's foreign minister said he would no longer meet with Mr Guterres and criticised his call for a ceasefire at the UN security council in New York.
It came after the Hamas-led ministry of health in Gaza reported more than 700 Palestinians were killed in 24 hours of Israeli air strikes, the highest daily death toll since the bombardment began. His tenure has been noted for being considerably more friendly toward Israel than previous secretary generals, criticising anti-Israeli bias in the UN system and stating that denying Israel's right to exist is anti-Semitism.