UK minister: UN chief ‘wrong’ to criticise Israeli response to Hamas
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The UK disagrees with the United Nations (UN) secretary-general’s comments that Hamas’ attacks on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum”, Robert Jenrick has said.
The immigration minister told Sky News: “We don’t believe Israel has broken international law. There is a clear right in international law for a nation to defend itself, and that is what Israel is doing.”
It came after UN chief Antonio Guterres sparked controversy for telling the UN security council that it should be recognised that Hamas’ attacks “did not happen in a vacuum” and came after the Palestinian people were “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”.
His comments on Tuesday also included concerns that “clear violations of international humanitarian law” had been committed by Israel in Gaza during its fightback.
But Jenrick insisted Guterres was “wrong” and should retract his comments about Hamas’s assault if it implied any justification for the slaughter of Israelis.
He urged for Hamas’s bloody assault on Israel on October 7, in which fighters killed 1,400 people, to be called out as an “appalling act of evil terrorism” that was without justification.
And Jenrick told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that: “No-one, whether deliberately or otherwise, should be implying there is any justification for that. In that sense, I think he was wrong. I hope that isn’t what he meant but, if it is, then he should retract that.”
But the Tory minister said it was “not for me to say” whether the UN chief should stand down following a call by Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan for Guterres to resign.
The Israeli government has conducted air strikes on the 25-mile strip that is home to 2.3m Palestinians and blockaded food, water and fuel, with aid only allowed in during recent days.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday that at least 5,791 Palestinians had been killed since October 7, including at least 704 in the past day. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage.
About 220 people are believed to have been captured by Hamas during the raids and are being held in Gaza.
Four of those have been released, including 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, who has family in the UK – and Jenrick suggested the release of further hostages could lead to peace talks.