Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen attends a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 8, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

Israel‘s foreign minister said on Tuesday that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was unfit to head the global body, saying he had not done enough to condemn the Hamas terrorist group or to advance peace in the Middle East.

“Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the United Nations,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said at a press conference inside the UN building in Geneva, where he was meeting with the World Health Organization and International Red Cross leaders alongside the relatives of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

“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?” Cohen said.

Cohen’s comments came three weeks after he canceled a meeting with Guterres, who in comments last month seemingly blamed Israel for Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israeli communities. During its invasion, the Palestinian terror group murdered over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 240 others as hostages.

“I will not meet with the UN secretary-general. After October 7th there is no room for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased from the world!” Cohen posted on X/Twitter at the time.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan went further, calling on Guterres to resign.

The backlash came in response to comments that Guterres said at a UN Security Council meeting on the Israel-Hamas war last month.

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence. Their economy is stifled, their people displaced, and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

Erdan slammed Guterres for his remark, arguing the UN chief was rationalizing Hamas’ atrocities against Israeli civilians.

“The UN secretary-general, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN,” Erdan said. “I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.”

Beyond Cohen and Erdan, members of both the Israeli unity government and the opposition also called out Guterres, with Minister Benny Gantz saying the UN leader “condones terror” and opposition leader Yair Lapid saying that Guterres “brought shame upon the United Nations … [with] excuses and rationalization for barbaric terrorism.”

The brutality of Hamas’ attacks — which included rape, torture, and the beheading of babies — has shocked the world. In response, Israel has been launching a military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by the terror group, with the goal of dismantling its leadership and military capabilities while also freeing the hostages.

Israeli officials have also expressed outrage at Guterres for in their view being too close to Iran, the main international sponsor of Hamas.

Last month, Guterres met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in New York.

“I guess the SG [UN secretary-general] will invite arsonists for the next discussion on forest fires; pedophiles for the next briefing on education or perhaps the protection of children,” Erdan tweeted about the meeting.

In a recent interview, Guterres said he had appealed to Iran to intervene and stop worsening hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group based in Lebanon, on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Guterres told journalist Fareed Zakaria that he had asked Iran “to tell Hezbollah, ‘You cannot create a situation in which Lebanon will be completely engulfed by this conflict,’ because if Hezbollah will launch a massive attack on Israel it might create, I don’t know what kind of impact, but one thing I am sure — Lebanon would not survive.”

Asked if Iran had been responsive, the UN chief said, “I do not know. They said always that they have nothing to do with what is happening but they say publicly that there is a risk of this conflict to be extended. It’s always very mysterious, the position of Iran.”

While in Geneva on Tuesday, Cohen also demanded that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) “work through all channels” to secure visits to the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

“We expect the Red Cross to put the issue at the top of the organization’s priority list, to use all levers of pressure, and not rest until it visits all the hostages, assesses their condition, and makes sure they are receiving the medical care they need,” said Cohen, who met with ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric Egger.