The United Nation’s humanitarian chief accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza “without evidence, mandate or restraint,” Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said in a scathing letter sent to the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, AFP reported on Friday.
“You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior U.N. official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide,” Danon wrote to Tom Fletcher, who spoke before the council on Tuesday.
“It was an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement that shattered any notion of neutrality,” the Israeli mission added.
Fletcher, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was quoted by AFP as saying that Israel was “deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“For those killed and those whose voices are silenced: What more evidence do you need now?” Fletcher asked the council.
He urged the international community “to stop the 21st-century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza.”
Danon wrote in his publicly made letter that the under-secretary-general was offering the council a “political sermon,” not a briefing.
“To weaponize the word ‘genocide’ against Israel is not just distortion—it is the desecration and subversion of a term with unique force and weight,” the Israeli diplomat said.
Those who use the term seek to “demonize” their targets, Danon remarked.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a new U.S.-backed humanitarian group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is set to begin operations in the Gaza Strip by the end of May.
The group aims to provide aid through a plan endorsed by Israel and supported by private American firms.
The foundation has asked Israel to temporarily allow international aid groups to resume deliveries under current procedures until its infrastructure is in place. No humanitarian assistance has entered Gaza since March 2.
The Israeli government, citing repeated theft of aid by Hamas, has largely frozen deliveries until the terrorist group releases all remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
Israel’s relations with the United Nations have significantly deteriorated since Oct. 7, with Jerusalem charging the international body with aiding Palestinian terrorists.
The Jewish state outlawed the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in its territory, mandating the organization to shut down its offices in the Israeli capital.
In October 2024, the Israeli government declared Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata in the Jewish state.
