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Israel Bans UN Chief Guterres From Entering Country Over Response to Iran Attack, Hamas Massacre
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Wednesday that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is “persona non grata in Israel” and banned from entering the Jewish state because of his failure to unequivocally condemn Iran by name for launching a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz wrote in a post on X/Twitter where he announced the move to bar Guterres.
Katz also lambasted the UN chief for his response to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“This is a Secretary-General who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization,” Katz added. “A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran — the mothership of global terror — will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN. Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.”
Iran, the chief international sponsor of Hamas, launched 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, forcing all of Israel’s population of 10 million people to hide in bomb shelters. The state of Israel said only one person was killed in the missile attack — Sameh Asli, 37, a Palestinian from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. He was killed by missile shrapnel in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, near Jericho, during the attack.
Guterres took to X/Twitter on Tuesday to comment on Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel, but he failed to name Israel or Iran in his remarks.
“I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire,” Guterres wrote in his post, which has been viewed by 9.5 million people.
French-Jewish philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy tweeted in response: “No, @antonioguterres. What should be condemned is not ‘escalation’ but ‘#Iran.’ By failing to say that, the #UN (and you) prove, once again, to be blind, deaf, useless, shameful and devoid of any moral sense. #Israel has to win.”
Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer and CEO of The International Legal Forum, commented on Guterres’ post saying, “You pathetic, disgusting coward. You could not even mention Israel. You are beyond redemption.”
Others accused the UN chief of “always being on the side of the terrorists” and “covering up for the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an internationally designated terrorist organization] in Iran, which you conveniently are unable to even mention.”
“There will be a ceasefire when the [Iranian] regime is where it belongs — in the dustbin of history, and the Middle East is free,” another X user told Guterres.
A post on X by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Photo: Screenshot
Guterres has been condemned by Israeli officials in the past and even faced pressure to resign after he seemed to blame Israel for the Oct. 7 massacre, during which Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages back to the Gaza Strip during their rampage across southern Israel. There are still 101 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.
Israeli officials have often accused the UN of having a bias against the Jewish state, and Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon recently called on the international body to apply more sanctions against Iran until its “capacity to support terror is completely diminished.”
The UN General Assembly passed with an overwhelming majority last month a non-binding Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its “occupation” of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem within 12 months.
The post Israel Bans UN Chief Guterres From Entering Country Over Response to Iran Attack, Hamas Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
The post Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
The post Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
The post Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.