Israel calls for UN head Guterres to resign after he calls for Security Council to demand ceasefire

UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote a letter to UN Security Council President Jose Dominguez on Wednesday, invoking Article 99 of the UN charter and asking him to declare a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to prevent “a humanitarian catastrophe.” 

In his letter, Guterres briefly acknowledged the Hamas surprise invasion and attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and attributed most of the “humanitarian disaster” to Israel’s actions against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Guterres also mentioned the closure of hospitals and the killing of UNRWA personnel, without mentioning Hamas’ use of hospitals for combat purposes, the theft of UN supplies by Hamas, or the fact that several UNRWA staff praised Hamas’ invasion. Reportedly, a UNRWA teacher held one of the Israeli hostages in his house.

Guterres wrote: "Since the start of Israel's military operation, more than 15,000 people have reportedly been killed, over 40% of them children." 

Israel disputes the death count provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry and has noted that, when providing the number of deaths to the media, the ministry does not distinguish between innocent civilians and Hamas terrorists and their accomplices. 

Israel estimates that it has killed close to 6,000 Hamas terrorists since the start of Operation Iron Swords on Oct. 7. 

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan blasted Guterres, saying he had “reached a new moral low” by activating the barely used clause “only when it allows him to put pressure on Israel, which is fighting the Nazi Hamas terrorists.” 

Erdan said that the UN head’s call was intended to keep Hamas in power in the Gaza Strip. 

“This is more proof of the secretary-general’s moral distortion and his bias against Israel. The Secretary-General’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’s reign of terror in Gaza.”

“I again call on the secretary-general to resign immediately,” Erdan said. “The UN needs a Secretary-General who supports the war on terror, not a secretary-general who acts according to the script written by Hamas.” 

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also slammed Guterres, saying his “tenure is a danger to world peace.”  

“Anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas,” Cohen wrote on the X social media platform. 

Guterres’ tenure is a danger to world peace.
His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a cease fire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.
Anyone who…

— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) December 6, 2023

Israel has vowed to continue its military operations until it defeats Hamas and removes the terror group from political control of the Gaza Strip.