Israel fires back at UN, saying staffers killed in IDF strikes were terrorists

Israeli ambassador hits back at United Nations Secretary-General, demanding investigation into alleged UNRWA staffers killed in pair of IDF airstrikes.

By World Israel News Staff

The United Nations Secretary-General and Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations sparred early Thursday morning, after a United Nations agency claimed six of its staffers were killed in a pair of IDF airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) claimed that six of its employees were killed in a pair of Israeli airstrikes in the city of Nuseirat in central Gaza Wednesday.

The Israeli airstrikes, UNRWA said, struck a school administered by the agency.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres excoriated the Israeli military over the airstrikes, and demanding international legal intervention against Israel.

“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” Guterres tweeted. “A school turned shelter for around 12,000 people was hit by Israeli airstrikes again today.”

“Six of our UNRWA colleagues are among those killed. These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”

Shortly afterwards, however, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, fired back, noting UNRWA’s extensive links to terrorist groups, including Hamas, and suggesting the six UNRWA employees killed were themselves terrorists.

“What is ‘unacceptable,’ Antonio Guterres, is the fact you refuse to recognize reality and continue to distort it,” tweeted Danon.

“Terrorists operating out of civilian buildings previously used by UNRWA
are not ‘innocent.’ It is unconscionable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its just war against terrorists, while Hamas continues to use women and children as human shields.”

The Israeli ambassador urged the UN to launch an investigation into the UNRWA staffers killed in the airstrikes, while vowing Israel would continue its “war against terrorism.”

“I suggest you carefully investigate who these terrorists were, what they were doing in the past and what atrocities they were committing when they were eliminated before making statements.”

“I’ll reiterate: Israel will continue its just war against terrorism. The solution is not a ceasefire, but the release of all hostages still held in Gaza and the elimination of Hamas.”

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists have repeatedly hid in UNRWA schools in Nuseirat.

On Monday, the Swiss House of Representatives voted to halt funding for UNRWA, citing the agency’s ties to terrorism.

An Israeli intelligence report released this year revealed that at least a dozen UNRWA employees actively participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacres, and that the agency has hundreds of “military operatives” affiliated with Hamas and other terrorist groups on its payroll.

António GuterresDanny DanonUnited NationsUNRWA