The UN secretary-general has tweeted an extract from his speech in an apparent move to show he has criticised both Hamas and Israel for the situation in Gaza right now.
“The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas. Those horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said on X.
His comments came after he condemned Hamas’s “horrifying and unprecedented” attack on Israel, while also acknowledging that they did not happen “in a vacuum” – citing the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
He also indirectly criticised Israel for ordering the evacuation of civilians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials called for the UN chief’s resignation while the country’s foreign minister cancelled a scheduled meeting with Guterres as a result.
<<Aljazeera>>