Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon delivered a sharp rebuke of the UN for its failure to address the recent killing of humanitarian workers in Gaza by Hamas, while the General Assembly instead focused on a resolution urging a ceasefire. Speaking to the press outside the UN chamber, Danon expressed outrage at the body’s priorities.
“Last night, Hamas murdered at least five Palestinian aid workers in Gaza. They ambushed a bus clearly marked and carrying over two dozen humanitarian staff from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Several others were injured, some may have been taken hostage,” Danon stated, calling attention to the brutal assault.
He stressed that those targeted were noncombatants performing life-saving duties. “These were civilians,” he said. “These are aid workers risking their lives to feed the people of Gaza. Hamas gunned them down in cold blood because they do not care about Palestinian lives. They do not care about life, period.”
Danon pointed out the stark contradiction between the UN’s stated values and its silence over the deadly ambush. “It was an attack on humanitarian workers – who the UN claims to care so deeply about. I’m asking you today, where is the condemnation from the Secretary General? Where is the condemnation from the United Nations?”
Rather than responding to the atrocity, the ambassador noted, the General Assembly chose to focus on pressuring Israel. “Moreover, the General Assembly will not meet to condemn that crime,” he said. “It will not gather to denounce Hamas. Instead, it will probably pass a resolution, a resolution which is a farce. It is a moral failure. It is a political stunt. If it passes, it will be remembered not as a step toward peace, but as a disgraceful act of appeasement. It is a resolution that rewards terrorists and abandons their victims.”
Danon held up the resolution text, drawing attention to what he saw as glaring omissions. The draft, he explained, fails to acknowledge Hamas’s responsibility for the October 7 massacre or tie a ceasefire to the freedom of the 53 hostages still being held. “It does not hold Hamas accountable, the terrorists who started this war, prolong this war, and tortures our hostages.”
He also pointed out the General Assembly’s longstanding unwillingness to explicitly name Hamas in its condemnations. “This assembly has over 20 months to say the words, ‘We condemn Hamas and we demand the immediate release of the hostages. But those words are nowhere to be found. Instead, the GA will try to place all the pressure on us, on Israel, the only party that accepted the proposal that was offered by the US, Qatar, and Egypt,” Danon emphasized.
Concluding his statement, Danon warned UN members about the consequences of their votes. “I say today to every delegation that will vote on this resolution – and we know that it will pass – if you refuse to condemn Hamas, you commend them. If you fail to demand the release of the hostages, you abandon them. If you try to erase October 7, you are complicit in allowing it to happen again. No General Assembly resolution, no moral failure, no hypocrisy, will change the reality. Israel will do whatever it takes to bring all of them back home,” he declared.
{Matzav.com}
