RAMALLAH, Wednesday, October 25, 2023 (WAFA) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today condemned “in the strongest terms” attacks by Israeli officials against the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, considering them “unjustified, premeditated, and display lack of respect and lack of commitment by the occupying state for the United Nations, its Charter and its resolutions regarding the Palestinian issue.”

It accused Israel of seeking to nullify the role of the United Nations in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, particularly the role of the UN chief in his capacity as Secretary-General due to his positions consistent with international law and the United Nations Charter, especially his role and the role of his team and representatives known for their efforts to end Israel’s open-ended and destructive war against the Palestinian people, to stop the displacement of Palestinians, and to urgently open humanitarian corridors to continuously bring humanitarian relief aid to the people in the Gaza Strip.

In his address to the UN Security Council, which met yesterday at UN Headquarters in New York for a scheduled quarterly open debate on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, Guterres said that it was important to recognize the attacks on Israel "did not happen in a vacuum."

"The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation", he added.

This frank and honest statement by Guterres upset the Israeli officials at the UN who did not want to hear the truth about their state’s occupation of the Palestinian people and therefore called on the UN Secretary-General to "resign immediately."

M.K.