Families of hostages meet with UN chief, accuse him of not doing enough to free them
Guterres says he inquired about visiting Israel in wake of October 7 but government didn’t respond, expresses full support for efforts to return captives to Israel
Representatives of families of Israelis held hostage in Gaza met with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres overnight Thursday in New York, and accused the UN of not doing enough to help free their relatives.
Hebrew media outlets described the meeting as tense, with the hostages’ relatives, mainly teenagers and young adults, pressing the UN chief to do far more to ensure their return, and criticizing him for comments seen as offering justification for Hamas’s October 7 attacks and for the fact that he has not visited Israel since war broke out.
According to Channel 12, Ye’ela David, whose brother Eviatar is held in Gaza, told Guterres: “If you want peace that’s fine, but you can’t say something that justifies the massacre… Look me in the eye. You need to come to the kibbutzim and the location of the [Supernova] party, to visit Israel and see what our loved ones went through. That’s what a real leader does.” Others were said to have shared similar sentiments.
Hadar Cohen, 19, whose twin brother Nimrod is held captive in Gaza, presented the secretary-general with a plate of rice and pita, illustrating the meager food that released hostages have said they were given.
“Does it seem normal to you that this is what they eat?” she asked, according to Channel 12. “It’s not enough for a child, certainly not for an adult. These are basic human rights.”
“My twin brother has been in captivity for 70 days,” Cohen continued. “Do you know what it means to not know if he is eating or sleeping? If he is being beaten?”
Guterres told the families that he had made overtures to try and visit Israel but that the government had not responded to him. He expressed solidarity with the families of the hostages but told them that he didn’t have the strength or the authority to release them from captivity himself.
“I wish I did,” he said in leaked comments translated to Hebrew. “If I had that power, I’m telling you: The first thing I would do is bring them home because this is a terrible crime that has a lasting impact.
“I’m not saying it’s better when someone dies, but when a family member dies we grieve and can move on,” he continued. “But when someone is kidnapped and we don’t know what is happening to them, I know exactly what that means and why it’s so significant and I fully support you.”
Guterres told the representatives that he had spoken to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in order to try and speed up the release of the hostages.
It is believed that 132 hostages remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops.
The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 20 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the terror group stormed into southern Israel, invading communities and killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7. The group took at least 240 hostages, ranging in age from a 9-month-old baby to an 86-year-old man.
Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused Guterres of supporting Hamas, called for his resignation and said his tenure as head of the UN was “a danger to world peace,” in a furious reaction to a letter Guterres wrote pressing for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and his invocation of a rare clause in the UN charter to urge Security Council intervention.
Cohen said that Guterres’ call for a ceasefire in the two-month war in Gaza “constitutes support” for the Palestinian terror organization and was “an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies, and the rape of women.”
Guterres has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the unfolding war, leading Israel’s ambassador to the UN to repeatedly castigate him and call for his resignation.
At a UN Security Council meeting on October 24, Guterres said it was “important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
Erdan, at the time, said Guterres’ comments were “shocking” and called on him to “resign immediately.” Cohen also canceled a meeting with Guterres in response, and war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz labeled the UN chief a “terror apologist.”
