United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, telling Reuters on Wednesday that there was something “fundamentally wrong” in the way the operation was conducted.
“I think there was something fundamentally wrong in the way this operation was conducted with total neglect in relation to the deaths of civilians and to the destruction of Gaza,” Guterres said during an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York.
He added that while Israel’s stated objective was to destroy Hamas, “Gaza is destroyed, but Hamas is not yet destroyed. So there is something fundamentally wrong with the way this is conducted.”
When asked if war crimes had been committed, Guterres responded, “There are strong reasons to believe that that possibility might be a reality.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon rejected the remarks, telling Reuters, “The only crime committed is the moral abomination that more than two years after the horrific massacres of October 7, the UN Secretary General has still not visited Israel - and has instead used his elevated platform to lambast and condemn Israel and Israelis at every opportunity.”
Guterres has been regularly critical of Israel’s counterterrorism operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.
Several weeks after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre, the UN Secretary-General said that the attack on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum” and appeared to blame Israel for the attack.
After his remarks were widely condemned, the UN chief claimed his comments were misinterpreted and that he had indeed condemned Hamas.
In October last year, then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz - now Defense Minister - announced that Guterres had been barred from entering Israel.
This past March, Guterres criticized Israel’s renewal of strikes on the Gaza Strip and said he was “outraged” by them.
In response, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote, “We are outraged that you, Antonio Guterres, are the Secretary-General of the UN.”
“Not a word about the fact that Hamas rejected two American proposals to extend the ceasefire and release more hostages-two proposals that Israel accepted,” added Marmorstein.
“Not a word about the fact that Hamas exploits the transfer of goods to Gaza to rebuild its war machine in order to further attack Israel.”
“Not a word about UNRWA, which, under your leadership, employs Hamas terrorists, and its facilities were used by Hamas to hold hostages. Indeed, we are outraged by your moral bankruptcy,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson concluded.