The United Nations has said Israel’s ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country is a “political statement.”
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that Foreign Minister Israel Katz saying Guterres is “persona non grata” is “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.”
Katz accuses Guterres of being biased against Israel, and says he never condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel. Israel also claims staff from the UN aid agency helping Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, are Hamas members who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Dujarric countered that Guterres has repeatedly condemned the Hamas attacks and sexual violence, and stressed that the UN still engages with Israel “at the operational level and other levels.”
