Tel Aviv on Wednesday barred United Nations Secretary General António Guterres from entering Israel after he failed to “unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel”.
Iran on Tuesday launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, raising fears of an all-out war in West Asia. Iran’s response came as Israeli troops launched ground raids into Lebanon.
“I have declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata [person who is not welcome] in Israel and banned him from entering the country,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said. “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil.”
On Tuesday, after Iran’s missile bombardment on Israel, Guterres said he condemned “the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation”.
Guterres did not name Iran or Israel in his post on X, which reiterated a call for a ceasefire amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the region.
Katz criticised Guterres for “his anti-Israel policy since the beginning of the war”.
Since Israel’s military offensive against Gaza began on October 7, the country has clashed with the United Nations on several occasions.
In January, Israel alleged that some employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, were involved in Palestinian militant group Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel on October 7.
Hamas killed 1,200 persons and took over 200 hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then, killing more than 40,000 persons including 16,500 children.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that Tuesday’s missile attack on Israel was a response to the killing of its commander Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The bombardment, which targeted “three military bases” in the Tel Aviv area, also came in retaliation for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Lebanon-based Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas. Both organisations are backed by Iran.
Late on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country would retaliate against Iran, which he said had “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it”.
In the past two weeks, Israel has conducted a series of strikes in Lebanon, killing over a thousand persons. An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed Nasrallah and Nilforoushan on Friday.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza.
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