Israel’s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, has called on the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to resign.
At a press conference inside the UN building in Geneva, Cohen said, “Guterres does not deserve to lead the United Nations.”
He added, “Guterres did not promote any peace process in the region… Guterres, like all the free nations, should say clearly and loudly: ‘Free Gaza from Hamas’.”
Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen’s latest comments mark an intensification of the country’s criticism of the UN.
Israel’s representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, last month called for António Guterres to resign after the UN chief urged a humanitarian pause and said that “it is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” pointing to “56 years of suffocating occupation” suffered by the Palestinian people.
Guterres had “lost all morality and impartiality”, Erdan said in a press briefing. “When you say those terrible words that these heinous attacks did not happen in a vacuum, you are tolerating terrorism, and I think that the secretary-general must resign.”
The Israeli minister also held meetings with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Cohen demanded that the ICRC “work through all channels” to secure visits to the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
“We expect the Red Cross to put the issue at the top of the organization’s priority list, to use all levers of pressure, and not rest until it visits all the hostages, assesses their condition, and makes sure they are receiving the medical care they need.”
Eli Cohen
Cohen, who met with ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric earlier on Tuesday, said that he expected the neutral body to do more to gain access to the hostages.
“I think that the minimum is the Red Cross will meet the hostages; the minimum is they receive a proof of life; and the minimum (is) that they will transfer the medicine to the hostages who are needing it,” he said.
Spoljaric said the UN was trying to gain access, but said it first needed agreements in place.
“Please know that the ICRC cannot force its way in to where hostages are held,” she said.
“We can only visit them when agreements, including safe access, are in place,” she added.
However, Cohen said this was not enough, insisting that the ICRC “should be more loud and clear with their statements and with the pressure”.
Families of Israeli Captives in Gaza Begin March To West Jerusalem
Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas on its October 7 attack on southern Israel began a march from Tel Aviv to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem.
“They don’t have time anymore,” Yuval Haran, who has seven relatives who were taken hostage, told the crowd as families gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum Square at the start of the 40-mile route.
Haran, 36, said he was consumed by pain.
“We will go to Jerusalem where the people who have the power to decide sit, where the prime minister and the war cabinet sit, where all of the Knesset is, and we will demand to meet with them. We will demand to hear why our families aren’t home yet.”
Yuval Haran
Erez Adar, 63, wore a T-shirt bearing the smiling face of his 85-year-old mother, Yafa, who was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz. His wife, Adriana’s T-shirt featured her nephew, Tamir, 38.
Adriana said, “We want the government to bring them home. I don’t know how but this is their job.”
She added, “There are people who are wounded and they don’t have time. There are a lot of old people, they don’t have a day more; they don’t have an hour.”
Hamas fighters are believed to have seized about 240 hostages during their October 7 attack on southern Israel, with the captives ranging in age from nine months to 85-years-old.
