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Israel’s Foreign Minister Says UN Chief Not Fit to Lead

Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)
Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)
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Israel’s Foreign Minister Says UN Chief Not Fit to Lead

Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)
Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was not fit to head the global body, saying he had not done enough to condemn militant group Hamas and was too close to Iran.

His comments, made at a press conference inside the UN building in Geneva, represent an intensification of Israel's criticism of the UN in the same week that the latter mourned the killing of more than 100 of its staff in Gaza.

"Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the United Nations," Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.

Cohen was meeting in Geneva with the World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) alongside families of Israeli hostages.

"I think that Guterres like all the free nations should say clearly and loudly: free Gaza from Hamas. Everyone said Hamas is worse than ISIS. Why can he not say it?" he said.

A spokesperson for the United Nations in New York did not immediately provide a comment.

Guterres has previously said there was something "wrong" with Israel's military operation which has killed more than 11,000 so far in retaliation for attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed 1,200 people. A further 240 people were seized from Israel, including infants, the injured and the elderly.

Cohen, who met with ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric earlier on Tuesday, said 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.

Health Minister Uriel Menachem Buso said that he would present evidence to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later on Tuesday that Hamas is using hospitals for military purposes. Hamas denies its fighters are present.

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Cuba Left Reeling after Hurricane Ravages Island

A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
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Cuba Left Reeling after Hurricane Ravages Island

A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)

Cuba was left reeling Thursday after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across the island, knocking out the country’s power grid, downing trees and damaging infrastructure. No fatalities were immediately reported.
Hurricane Rafael crossed a western portion of Cuba on Wednesday evening about 75 kilometers west of Havana.
Some 50,000 people took shelter in Havana, with thousands more doing the same in regions south and just west of the capital since they lived in flood zones or in flimsy homes. The main road from Havana to the southern coastal city of Batabanó was strewn with dozens of utility poles and wires.
Lázaro Guerra, electricity director for the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said power had been partially restored in the island’s western region and that generation units were powering back up. But he warned that restoring power would be slow-going as crews took safety precautions.
As Rafael plowed across Cuba on Wednesday evening it slowed to a Category 2 hurricane as it chugged into the Gulf of Mexico before heading toward Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Late Thursday morning, the hurricane was located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) west-northwest of Havana. It had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (345 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Earlier in the week, Rafael brushed past Jamaica and battered the Cayman Islands, downing trees and power lines and unleashing heavy flooding in some areas.
Authorities in Jamaica are searching for a couple last seen inside a car that was swept away by floodwaters, police told Radio Jamaica News.
Thousands of customers in Jamaica and Little Cayman remained without power as crews worked to restore electricity after the storm.
Rafael was expected to keep weakening as it spins over open waters and heads toward northern Mexico, although the hurricane center warned there was “above average uncertainty” in the storm's future track.
Meanwhile, many Cubans were left picking up the pieces from Wednesday night, after a rocky few weeks in the Caribbean nation. In October, the island was hit by a one-two punch. First, it was hit by island-wide blackouts stretching on for days, a product of the island’s energy crisis. Shortly after, it was slapped by powerful hurricane that struck the eastern part of the island and killed at least six people.
The disasters have stoked discontent already simmering in Cuba amid an ongoing economic crisis, which has pushed many to migrate from Cuba.
Classes and public transport were suspended on parts of the island and authorities canceled flights in and out of Havana and Varadero. Thousands of people in the west of the island had been evacuated as a preventative measure.
Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.