Israel demanded Tuesday that the United Nations (UN) Security Council convene to recognize Hamas as a terror organization, in the wake of a UN report confirming Hamas committed rape against Israelis in the October 7 attack.
As Breitbart News reported Monday, the UN issued a report largely confirming Israel’s accusations, noting that Hamas terrorists had committed gang rapes on October 7, and was also committing sexual violence against Israeli hostages.
“Israel calls for the immediate convening of the UN Security Council with the aim of declaring Hamas a terrorist organization,” Avi Hyman, an Israeli government spokesperson, said. “Now, even the UN recognizes Hamas’s horrific sexual crimes.”
Though Hamas is clearly a terrorist organization, the UN has refused to recognize it as one. As the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) has noted:
The UN does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist group despite decades of suicide bombings, thousands of rockets launched indiscriminately at Israeli cities, and the barbaric actions of October 7. In addition, the UN body formerly known as the 1267 Committee, now known as the ISIL (Dae’sh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, does not view Hamas (or any other Iranian proxy) as a terrorist group.
The UN’s refusal to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization is the result of the influence of Islamic nations, as well as Russia and China, which adopt a generally anti-Western stance.
In that regard, the UN report Monday was unusual.
Hyman also said that now would be the “perfect time” for the UN to investigate the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which caters solely to Palestinian refugees, separate from other refugees in general.
Israel has long noted UNRWA’s role in radicalizing Palestinians, and has presented evidence to the UN that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 attack. On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces released an audio recording of a UNRWA employee boasting that he had taken Israeli women hostage, using demeaning language to refer to them.
⚠️TW: Graphic Content
On Oct. 7, Yusef Al-Hawajara, an @UNRWA teacher, called his colleague to boast about kidnapping Israeli women, his “Sabaya,” while his colleague boasts about his “Noble Horse.”
They are using derogatory, dehumanizing terms to describe young female hostages… pic.twitter.com/GuToYKHDO6
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 4, 2024
“Just to be clear,” Hyman added, “these were educators from UNRWA schools participating in the October 7 massacre.”
He noted that some 450 terrorists in Gaza, mostly Hamas, had also been found to have been employees of UNRWA.
“UNRWA must replaced now by other organizations which had not been tainted by their support for terrorism,” he said.
Hyman also commented on ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the crisis on Israel’s northern border, where Hezbollah continues to attack civilians using anti-tank missiles and other projectiles. On Monday, an Indian worker, Patnibin Maxwell, was murdered by Hezbollah in such an attack as he worked in an orchard; two others were wounded.
“Hezbollah is acting at the guidance and encouragement of Iran,” Hyman said. “While we remain open to a diplomatic solution if possible, if Hezbollah pushes us into an expanded military campaign, we will respond with such force that Lebanon will be set back by years.”
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein met with Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant earlier Tuesday as he shuttles between Lebanon and Israel in an attempt to find a solution.
Gallant “expressed the defense establishment’s commitment to the ongoing process led by Mr. Hochstein to reach understandings, yet emphasized that Hezbollah’s aggression is dragging the parties to a dangerous escalation,” according to a statement released by the Israeli Government Press Office.
Asked by Breitbart News to outline the current proposals on the table to resolve the situation diplomatically, Hyman said that while he would not conduct negotiations from the podium, “Israel is open and would be happy to reach a diplomatic end to the ongoing violence that we’re seeing on the northern border, from the aggression of Hezbollah, but that would revolve around UN resolution 1701 [ending the 2006 conflict], that they need to get back to the Litani River.
“Now, if we can’t reach a diplomatic understanding, then the military card is still very much ready to be played, and Hezbollah will regret having tried us. To quote the President of the United States at the beginning of the war: ‘Don’t.’”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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