Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Israel earlier this week. Photo: Shalom Amsalem.

JNS.org – United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is on a three-day visit to Israel, traveled to the Gaza border on Wednesday to see first-hand the security challenges Israel faces, including visiting a Hamas terror tunnel.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who has been accompanying Guterres on his visit, and Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi explained Israel’s security challenges as well as the situation in the Gaza Strip under Hamas rule.

Danon told Guterres, “Hamas continues to arm itself to harm Israeli civilians and takes advantage of aid from the international community for terrorism — at the expense of the Strip’s residents. Instead of securing a better future for the children of Gaza, Hamas turned them into hostages and invests its resources in digging murderous terror tunnels.”

Following his visit with Israeli residents near Gaza, Guterres said, “I had the enormous pleasure when talking to the families of the kibbutzim to note that instead of what would be natural — a feeling of anger in relation to what is an attack on civilians and a violation of international humanitarian law — I’ve seen from them an extraordinary message of peace and reconciliation.”

They kept “asking us to help the Palestinians in Gaza to overcome their tragic humanitarian problems and being themselves ready to help and to provide support to the Palestinian community in Gaza,” he added.

The UN leader also entered the Gaza Strip where he toured a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school, where he said he saw “one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises that I have seen in many years working as a humanitarian in the United Nations.”

Guterres previously met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday and met with Palestinian Authority leaders in Ramallah the following day.