Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. doubled down on his extensive criticism of the global body’s response to the Hamas terrorist attacks, saying that its leaders should praise, not condemn, his country’s order for Gaza’s residents to evacuate to another part of the enclave.
“The U.N. should be praising Israel for these precautionary actions,” said Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan on Friday afternoon at an event featuring testimony from the families of people taken hostage over the weekend.
The Israel Defense Forces last night started to urge people located in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave to leave for the southern part, below Wadi Gaza, ahead of stepped-up military operations there. That prompted criticism from U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, whose team urged Israel to rescind the order, saying that the evacuation area is home to 1.1 million people.
That criticism has come amid a drumbeat of concern by U.S. and foreign leaders about civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is now carrying out air strikes and some targeted raids ahead of a possible ground operation. The Hamas-run health ministry of Gaza says 1,900 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes that followed the terrorist attack.
Erdan said today that Hamas’s strategy is to put civilians in harm’s way to pressure the international community into limiting Israeli operations: “They believe that the international community will now tie the hands of Israel from erasing Hamas’s terror infrastructure.”
He rejected the notion that Israel’s orders for certain Gaza residents to evacuate was irresponsible, and he accused the U.N. of malfeasance.
“As resources and funds poured into Gaza and went straight into Hamas terror coffers, the U.N. stayed silent. As Hamas dug terror tunnels under residential neighborhoods, the U.N. stayed silent. While Gazan schools and hospitals became Hamas rocket-launch pads, the U.N. stayed silent. And now that Israel gives Gaza’s civilian population advanced warning to evacuate areas, as we cherish life and do all that we can to minimize civilian casualties, the U.N. prefers to condemn these preventive measures,” Erdan said.
He accused the U.N. of “indifference to the murders of 1,300 Israelis,” the number killed in the Hamas attacks, and said the U.N. “doesn’t want Israel to defend itself.”
Erdan had also criticized the U.N.’s response to the situation earlier this week.
The event today put a spotlight on the family members of people taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during the recent attacks.
Yoni Asher, an Israeli who addressed the room virtually, said his wife and two young daughters were taken hostage during a trip to one of the kibbutzes near the Gaza border. “I want to approach anyone who can hear me in the international community: Please bring back my baby girls,” he said.
The hostage situation is “not the time for discourse, context, or debate,” said Alana Zeitchik, whose younger sister was kidnapped with her husband and their three daughters from Kibbutz Nir Oz. She spoke about the agony of seeing them in a video of hostages on a truck that was posted to social media after their abduction.
Rabbi Burton Visotzky, meanwhile, spoke about the kidnapping of his cousin’s son, Hirsch, an American citizen, who attended the music festival that was attacked by Hamas terrorists. Part of his arm was blown off in the attack, Visotzky said. “He is in dire need of medical attention.”
Hamas is thought to have taken around 150 hostages, including several American citizens.