UN chief says remarks about Hamas that sparked resignation calls were misrepresented

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that his recent remarks about the militant group Hamas were misrepresented after multiple officials called for his resignation. 

Guterres told reporters Wednesday that he was “shocked” by how his remarks to the Security Council were represented, saying that it was “as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas,” The Associated Press reported. 

“This is false. It was the opposite,” he said.

Guterres has faced calls for his resignation over his speech given to the Security Council on Tuesday, where he said the Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum.” He said that he also told the council that he “condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.”

“Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians — or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,” he said on Tuesday.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations called on Guterres to resign Tuesday after he called for a ceasefire in his remarks.

“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,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan said on X, formerly Twitter. “I call on him to resign immediately.”

Guterres has been urging those involved to abide by humanitarian law, and has warned that the situation in Gaza is turning dire as it runs out of needed supplies, like food, water and fuel.

Many officials, lawmakers and humanitarian aid groups have also expressed concerns about the conditions in Gaza after Israel prevented food, water, medical supplies, power and fuel from entering the region for the first weeks of the war. Israel has continued to bar fuel from the territory.

The war started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants launched a deadly, surprise attack on Israel, killing more than 1,400 Israelis. Most were civilians.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 6,546 Palestinians have also been killed and 17,439 others wounded in the subsequent attacks.