Israeli foreign minister asks UN to designate Hamas as terrorist organization

Israel’s foreign minister on Monday asked the United Nations Security Council to designate Hamas a terrorist organization and impose “tough sanctions.”

“I ask the United Nations Security Council to exert as much pressure as possible on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all kidnapped hostages,” Israel Katz said.

The council must agree to a resolution to take this step. Currently, many Security Council members, including the United States, Britain and Japan, have listed Hamas as a terrorist organization in their domestic legislation.

Katz was speaking at a meeting of the 15-nation Security Council at the request of the United States, France and Britain, which discussed a report on sexual violence in conflict by Pramila Patten, the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general.

Patten and a team of nine technical experts visited Israel for two weeks from January 29 to February 14 and found “clear and convincing information” that Hamas was responsible for 10 The victims of the September 7 terrorist attacks committed sexual violence, including rape. Israel.

At least 1,200 people died that day, some of them victims of sexual violence.

Patten’s report also concluded that such violence may continue against imprisoned hostages.

“Today, every member of the Security Council has the opportunity to save the lives of 134 innocent people,” Katz said of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups. “In doing so, you will show the world that the Council can be a light of justice and hope for all. It’s in your hands.”

In the council chamber, family members of some of the hostages sat behind Katz.

Katz, who came to the United Nations for the first time since the outbreak of the war, criticized the United Nations for being “silent for too long” on Hamas’s actions, saying at meetings since October 7 that “the United Nations has never condemned or opposed these actions by Hamas.” A brutal crime.”

Although the Security Council has yet to issue a formal condemnation on behalf of the Security Council, most Council members have individually condemned the attack on 7 October on multiple occasions in public meetings. The same goes for Secretary-General António Guterres, the President of the General Assembly and senior officials of the organization.

Earlier on Monday, Guterres reiterated his call for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages to the media and a meeting of hundreds of delegates gathered to discuss women’s rights.

He also reiterated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which Israel opposes.

stern letter

Since the attacks, Israeli officials have been highly critical of the United Nations and its agency that aids Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, as well as Guterres himself.Katz did not meet with the UN secretary-general on Monday, seen by VOA, but instead sent him a scathing letter in which the Israeli foreign minister accused Guterres of “allowing [the U.N.] became a center of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel incitement during his tenure.”

On March 4, hours before the United Nations released the Patten report, Israeli officials questioned it on social media. Katz recalled the U.N. ambassador to Israel for consultations and accused the U.N. of trying to “suppress” Patten’s report – a claim she rejected at the Security Council meeting.

“I must be clear and unequivocal: the secretary-general did not seek to suppress my report or suppress its findings,” she said. “On the contrary, I had his full political, logistical and financial support and his clear instructions to publicly release my report and transmit it immediately to the Security Council.”

In the letter from Israel’s foreign minister, he accused the secretary-general of being indifferent to the report’s contents and appeared to accuse him of anti-Semitism.

“Your reluctance to take a decisive international stance against these atrocities, rather than focus on criticizing Israel, a country that defended itself after a brutal massacre, demonstrates a painful bias,” Katz wrote. “If the victims were not Jewish or Israeli dissidents, and your office responds to a large degree. [more] Energetic way. “

A UN official told VOA that the contents of Katz’s letter “in no way reflect who Antonio Guterres truly is and what he has done as secretary-general since October 7.”

Patten told the committee that her team was unable to verify a number of reports of rape and sexual abuse that occurred on October 7, including the widely reported case of a pregnant woman at Kibbutz Beeri whose uterus was allegedly torn apart and her fetus was Stab before stab. Both men died.

The UN team also visited Ramallah in the West Bank to hear information on allegations of conflict-related sexual violence against Palestinians since October 7.

“While I did not receive any reports of rape, my interlocutors raised with me incidents of sexual violence that occurred in the detention of Palestinian men and women, such as intrusive body searches; unwanted touching of private areas; beatings, including in the genital area; Threats to rape women, threats to rape female members of male families (wives, sisters, daughters); as well as inappropriate strip searches and prolonged forced nudity of detainees,” she told Council members.

The Palestinian envoy said the Security Council’s briefing on a report released a week ago showed an “unprecedented response” and had not shown similar speed in years in dealing with reports of abuses against Palestinians.

“We hope this meeting marks a change in attitude and that the council will pay more attention to this matter in an impartial manner,” Riyad Mansour said.