Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, went to the tape on Friday, accusing the U.N. Security Council of “political theater” for calling another emergency meeting on the humanitarian plight in Gaza without addressing the anti-Hamas protests occurring in the Strip.
The envoy played a recording of the protests on his cell phone, with anti-Hamas chants fully audible. “The Gazans have the courage you don’t have,” Danon told the council.
Backed by China, Pakistan, Russia and Somalia, Algeria called the session, ostensibly to discuss developments since the mid-March breakdown of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, including the humanitarian situation and risks to aid workers in Gaza.
United Nations officials had expressed outrage earlier this week about an incident on March 23, in which the bodies of 15 emergency response personnel from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the United Nations were buried in a bulldozed grave in Gaza.
The United Nations claimed Israeli forces killed a team of personnel, struck additional units who followed and buried the personnel and their ambulances together. The Israel Defense Forces said the emergency vehicles in question approached Israeli military positions in a suspicious manner and without prior coordination.
Danon decried the global body’s rush to judgment, stating that nine Hamas terrorists, including Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were eliminated in that operation.
“How did nine Hamas terrorists find themselves traveling inside Red Crescent ambulances? The presence of those terrorists puts everyone’s lives at risk,” Danon said. “If we truly want to protect civilians and humanitarian workers, the vetting system of such organizations must improve immediately.”
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told the council that “there must be an independent, prompt and thorough investigation into the killings, and those responsible for any violation of international law must be held to account.”
Younes Al-Khatib, president of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, said that “it’s worth noting also that during the communication with the team, the dispatch could hear a conversation in Hebrew between the Israeli forces and the team, meaning some were still alive when they were under the control of the Israeli forces.” Al-Khatib did not describe any of the contents of the conversation.
“Every death, including those of U.N. and humanitarian workers that many have discussed today, would have been avoided had Hamas accepted the bridge proposal on the table last month,” Dorothy Shea, interim U.S. envoy to the United Nations, told the council.
Other vehicles passing safely along the same route on March 23 had coordinated their movements with the IDF, Shea noted.
“Hamas’s reckless decisions have caused enough bloodshed,” she said. “They have no right to represent Palestinians anywhere and must leave Gaza.”
Several ambassadors criticized recent comments by Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, about the potential for Israel to occupy portions of Gaza. Many expressed concern over food insecurity in Gaza as Israel has prevented the entry of aid and commercial supplies since March 2 to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
The U.N. World Food Programme, which has repeatedly declined requests from JNS to verify its claims that a famine occurred in Gaza, warned that hundreds of thousands of Gazans were at risk of extreme hunger and malnutrition.
Earlier this week, the agency claimed that 25 Gazan bakeries it had supported were forced to shutter due to dwindling flour and cooking-gas provisions. Video emerged of Gazans looting hundreds of packages of flour from an UNRWA warehouse in Gaza City. JNS
{Matzav.com}