UN secretary-general Hamas comments ‘disgusting and disqualifies him from leading’: Haley

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley lambasted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for claiming that the Oct. 7 Hamas surprise attacks on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum” during a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” Guterres said, according to reporting from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.”

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“And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres continued.

Haley, a former U.N. ambassador for the United States, was unequivocal in denouncing Guterres’s comments on Tuesday. “The Secretary General of the UN should know nothing justifies beheading babies, burning people alive, and raping young girls. He owes the people of Israel an apology,” Haley said. “This is disgusting and disqualifies him from leading the UN.”

Haley echoed Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who called for Guterres “to resign immediately.”

“The shocking speech by the @UN Secretary-General at the Security Council meeting, while rockets are being fired at all of Israel, proved conclusively, beyond any doubt, that the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner,” Erdan said.

“His statement that, ‘the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,’ expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder,” Erdan continued. “It’s really unfathomable. It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views. A tragedy!”

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said he won’t meet with Guterres due to his comments criticizing Israel. “After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!” Cohen said.

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More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the Oct. 7 attack, and 222 people were taken hostage by Hamas, although the group recently released four captives. At least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed since the battle began, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

President Joe Biden has requested a $106 billion foreign aid package from Congress that includes $14.3 billion in assistance to Israel along with $61 billion in funds for Ukraine in its battle against Russia.