‘Israeli blood is cheap’: Erdan blasts Gaza truce demand for ignoring hostages

Israeli Ambassador to the UN blasts the Security Council for adopting a resolution that doesn’t condition a ceasefire on the release of the hostages.

“On the one hand, the resolution says that taking civilians hostage is in violation of international law, yet on the other hand — despite the fact that you know Hamas won’t listen to your calls and release the hostages — you demand a ceasefire,” Erdan says in remarks to the body after the vote.

Erdan says that the council’s failure to condition a ceasefire on the hostages’ release “not only isn’t helpful, but it undermines the effort to secure their release. It is harmful to these efforts because it gives Hamas terrorists hope to get a ceasefire without releasing the hostages.”

He then reads out a text of a resolution that he thinks should’ve been adopted by the council today — one that condemns human rights abuses such as hostage-taking and rape and demands the terror group responsible to immediately cease its abuses.

Erdan reveals that this was actually the text of the resolution that the council adopted ten years ago to condemn Boko Haram’s kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria.

“Why can this Council call on Boko Haram to lay down their arms, but the same can’t be demanded of the murderous Hamas terrorists?” Erdan asks. “Is the life of little baby Kfir Bibas worth less than the life of a Nigerian child?”

“Sadly, it’s for the same reason why you can condemn terror attacks in Russia and Iran, but not in Israel. To this Council, Israeli blood is cheap. This is a travesty and I’m disgusted,” he adds.