Paul Ronzheimer is the deputy editor-in-chief of BILD and a senior journalist reporting for Axel Springer, the parent company of POLITICO.
António Guterres should resign as United Nations secretary-general, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday.
The demand comes following Israel’s allegations that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in Hamas’ violent attack on October 7.
“Of course he is responsible as U.N. secretary-general,” Katz said in an interview with Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company. “Guterres must resign” or “the U.N. must replace him.”
Israel has been at loggerheads with the U.N. for months, after Guterres said in October that Hamas’ attack “did not happen in a vacuum,” and accused Israel of carrying out “56 years of suffocating occupation.”
On Friday — after the International Court of Justice reproached Israel over its ongoing retaliatory bombardment of Gaza but stopped short of calling for a cease-fire — Israel accused a dozen U.N. employees of having participated in Hamas’ assault.
The United States, Germany and Italy, among others, responded by pausing funding to the relief agency. “The countries acted correctly even though it was a humanitarian organization,” said Katz.
The UNRWA denies that it knowingly aided Hamas or any other militant group. It says that it thoroughly investigates allegations and holds staff accountable: On Friday, the U.N. fired nine of the accused employees. One is reportedly dead, the U.N. said, with two still being identified.
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” Guterres said in a statement Sunday. “Two million civilians in Gaza depend on critical aid from UNRWA for daily survival.”
Israel has not yet publicly provided evidence for its allegations. U.S. top diplomat Antony Blinken said Monday that the accusations are “highly credible,” although U.S. officials “haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves.”
“We will collect this evidence and send it to all other countries such as the USA and Germany,” Katz told Axel Springer. “Guterres had ignored many complaints and information regarding the behavior of the aid organization as well as indications of cooperation with Hamas.”
According to Katz, “UNRWA is not part of the solution, it is part of the problem.” A new agency should be developed for the reconstruction of Gaza, he said, one “in which the Arab states should be more involved than before.”
“We are not talking about individuals,” Katz said. Instead, Israel claims that UNRWA is “almost fully cooperating with Hamas.”
UNRWA runs schools, health clinics and aid programs in refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. It has 13,000 employees in Gaza alone.