Israeli Ambassador Challenges UN Official’s Genocide Claims in Gaza

Israeli Ambassador Challenges UN Official’s Genocide Claims in Gaza

EXCLUSIVE — Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon expressed strong condemnation of a United Nations official over remarks he considers to have harmed the credibility of the U.N. He described the comments as shattering any semblance of neutrality.

On Tuesday, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher accused Israel of carrying out genocide in his address to the U.N. Security Council. Fletcher claimed that Israel is unapologetically imposing inhumane conditions on civilians within the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Most of Gaza is either within Israeli militarized zones or under displacement orders,” Fletcher stated, outlining the dire humanitarian situation.

In his role as head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, Fletcher highlighted the struggles faced by Gazans due to a blockade preventing aid from entering the Gaza Strip for over ten weeks. He painted a grim picture of hospitals being overwhelmed and the population dealing with severe shortages of food and medical care.

“So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now? Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you simply claim that ‘we did all we could?’” Fletcher posed challenging questions to the international community.

While addressing the situation in Gaza, Fletcher did not overlook the increasing violence in the West Bank. The day following his remarks, May 14, gunmen killed a pregnant Israeli woman on her way to a hospital to give birth. Tzeela Gez lost her life, but doctors managed to deliver her baby, who is reported to be in serious but stable condition.

In response to these harrowing claims, Danon stated that Fletcher’s comments shocked and disturbed him. He criticized the U.N. official for making what he described as an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement. According to Danon, Fletcher’s words obliterated any notion of the U.N.’s neutrality.

“You have the audacity, in your capacity as a senior U.N. official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint,” Danon stated in his response. He further claimed that the U.N. representative’s approach amounted to a political sermon rather than an informative briefing.

In response to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, OCHA spokesperson Eri Kaneko reiterated Fletcher’s position. She emphasized that it is for legal bodies to determine if genocide is occurring, adding that Fletcher’s message is that the global community must take decisive action to prevent genocide and uphold international humanitarian law.

When questioned about whether Fletcher was formally accusing Israel of intentionally killing and harming civilians, Kaneko refrained from adding to Fletcher’s statement, asserting that his words should speak for themselves. She noted that “not a single civilian in Gaza – teachers, artists, merchants, aid workers, hostages – has been spared.”

Danon raised questions about the authority under which Fletcher made his accusations. He described the U.N. official’s invocation of the term