FM Cohen calls on UN Women chief to quit after taking 57 days to condemn Hamas assault

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen slams the women’s rights group UN Women after it took 57 days to condemn the Hamas onslaught against Israel and the sexual violence during the attack. He also calls on its executive director Sima Bahous, a Jordanian national, to quit.

“The behavior of UN Women since the massacre on October 7 has been shameful,” Cohen writes.

“Their statement is tepid and late, coming after nearly two months of silence and turning a blind eye to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and sexual crimes committed by the Hamas terror group,” he says.

UN Women issued a statement earlier condemning the Hamas terror group, 57 days after some 1,200 were killed — mostly civilians — and over 240 kidnapped in the brutal Hamas-led October 7 massacres in southern Israel, and amid weeks of criticism over its silence about evidence of sexual violence during the attack.

The UN Women statement led with “regret” that fighting had resumed between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, after a seven-day truce which saw 105 civilian hostages released from Gaza in exchange for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

“We unequivocally condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October. We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks,” the statement continued.

It then went on to laud the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, for “opening its call for submissions on gender-based crimes since October 7.”

Cohen slammed this decision too, saying that an investigation into the crimes should be carried out by a neutral body, not “Israel-haters and antisemites.”