UN secretary-general says Gaza Strip is a 'graveyard for children'; Israel calls for his resignation

Israel has called for the resignation of UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres, who has continued to make inflammatory false statements about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

On Monday, Guterres claimed that Gaza was becoming a “graveyard for children,” as he accused Israel of meting out “collective punishment” in the Strip.

Guterres also urged Israel and Hamas to enter into a ceasefire, a call which both Israel and the United States have already stated would only be to the benefit of the Hamas terror organization.

“We must act now to find a way out of this brutal, awful, agonizing dead end of destruction,” Guterres told reporters at the United Nations.

“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day.”

Guterres was referring to the unverified number of casualties published daily by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by the Hamas terror group and reportedly controls the information being provided.

Two weeks ago, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby warned against publishing “numbers put out by an organization that’s run by a terrorist organization.”

The senior advisor of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), Richard Goldberg, said that anyone using those numbers is knowingly communicating Hamas propaganda.

“Anyone who cites Hamas statistics as fact is knowingly amplifying Hamas propaganda aimed at pressuring Israel into a ceasefire before Hamas can be destroyed. Hamas lies – it’s just what Hamas does – and those lies will become louder and more outrageous as the group’s final hours approach,” Goldberg said.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan responded to Guterres on X, formerly Twitter, calling him out for ignoring the graveyard of children killed deliberately by Hamas during its gruesome terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7.

“It has been over 30 days since the children of southern Israel were intentionally slaughtered by Hamas terrorists but you have said NOTHING about the ‘graveyard of children’ the south of Israel has become,” Erdan wrote.

Erdan called out the “moral rot” of Guterres and called for the secretary-general's resignation.

“You have lost your moral compass and cannot remain Secretary-General for even another minute. Any UN representative who makes the false immoral comparison between a brutal terrorist organization that commits war crimes and a law-abiding democracy proves that he suffers from moral rot.”

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also called out Guterres’ hypocrisy.

“Shame on you,” Cohen wrote. “More than 30 minors – among them a 9-month-old baby as well as toddlers and children who witnessed their parents being murdered in cold blood – are being held against their will in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is the problem in Gaza, not Israel’s actions to eliminate this terrorist organization.”

On Sunday, the heads of 18 UN agencies sent out a tweet, referring to Israel’s campaign against Hamas, in which they stated: “We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It’s been thirty days. Enough is enough. This must stop now.” The UN heads made it clear, in a separate letter, that they believe there is a moral equivalence between the deliberate Hamas murder of innocent civilians and Israel’s response to it. While the statement did not condemn the Hamas attack, it called Israel’s response “outrageous.”

“In Israel, some 1,400 people have been killed and thousands have been injured, according to the Israeli authorities,” the letter continued.

“More than 200 people, including children, have been taken hostage. Rockets continue to traumatize families. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. This is horrific. However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage.”