Israel will not renew the visa of a UN employee in the country and will also reject the visa application of another UN employee, as the country once again expresses its displeasure with the global body, which has criticized Israel’s attacks on civilians and hospitals during Gaza -War. The overwhelming majority of the more than 20,000 Palestinians killed are civilians.

“We will stop working with those who cooperate with the Hamas terrorist organization’s propaganda,” Eli Cohen, Israel’s foreign minister, wrote on X on Monday.

“We will no longer remain silent in the face of the UN’s hypocrisy!” he said. Israel has accused the United Nations of bias.

Cohen called the UN’s behavior “a disgrace” since the war broke out on October 7 after Hamas carried out deadly attacks in Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The United Nations has criticized Hamas for the Oct. 7 attacks and has repeatedly called for the release of prisoners held by the group.

UN officials have criticized Israel’s attacks on residential areas, schools and hospitals, as well as its restriction on aid deliveries during the full blockade of the Gaza Strip after the October 7 attacks. More than 100 journalists, about 270 medical personnel and at least 134 UN staff were killed in Israeli strikes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and denounced the serious humanitarian crisis. The United Nations, aid agencies and human rights groups have warned that Palestinians are now facing starvation. The UN chief invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter this month, a move aimed at formally warning the Security Council of a global threat posed by Israel’s war on Gaza.

The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly for a humanitarian ceasefire several times since the war began, but votes in the U.N. Security Council have been rejected and blocked by Israel’s close ally, the United States. She abstained from voting on the latest resolution, allowing it to pass Friday, but the measure was criticized “insufficient”.

Israel’s foreign minister accused the UN chief, the UN human rights chief and the UN women’s agency of legitimizing “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, publishing “unfounded blood libels” and ignoring the “rapes of Israeli women” for months.

But human rights organizations have also sharply criticized Israel for its war tactics, describing it as “collective punishment” for the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. Media reports have also debunked Israeli claims that Hamas operated a command center beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, which was crippled by Israeli shelling. Israel has justified attacks on U.N. schools, universities and hospitals by saying they were used by Hamas, but has provided no evidence to support its claims.

Israel at war with the UN?

The latest incident is just one of many series of cases There are conflicts between Israel and the United Nations over the Gaza war that are unusual for member states of the global organization.

This month, Israel announced its decision to revoke the residency visa of Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, who left the country last week.

“Anyone who has not condemned Hamas for the brutal massacre of 1,200 Israelis… but instead condemns Israel, a democratic country that protects its citizens, cannot serve in the United Nations and is not allowed to enter Israel!” Cohen wrote about X .

Hastings had criticized Israeli restrictions on urgently needed aid deliveries. “The conditions for delivering aid to the people of Gaza do not exist,” she said on December 4.

“If possible, an even more hellish scenario will emerge to which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond,” she said, referring to the resumption of Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip at the end of a week-long lull in fighting between Israel and Hamas.

On October 25, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, warned that his country would deny visas to UN officials after Guterres criticized Israel for ordering civilians to evacuate from the northern Gaza Strip to the southern Gaza Strip, and said Hamas’ attacks on Israel “didn’t happen in a year.” Vacuum”.

“I am shocked at the misrepresentation of some of my statements… as if I were justifying acts of terror by Hamas.” This is false. “The opposite was the case,” Guterres said, without mentioning Israel’s name.

In addition to denying visas and accusing the UN chief of being unfit to lead the agency, Cohen also said This month he announced that he had ordered the Israeli mission to the United Nations to oppose increasing the annual budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The agency has repeatedly warned that aid work in Gaza is at a breaking point amid the ongoing Israeli siege. After the October 7 attacks, Israel imposed a total siege and cut off electricity, water and food. The Palestinian enclave is described as an “open-air prison” due to Israel’s land, air and sea blockade imposed since 2007.

UNRWA has welcomed around 1.2 million civilians – two-thirds of all displaced people in Gaza – into its shelters on the other side of the Gaza Strip.

Since the start of the war, Israeli attacks have killed more than 100 UNRWA staff and damaged over 40 of the organization’s buildings in Gaza.

Last week, Cohen accused the agency of perpetuating “the conflict” and called on countries around the world to “stop turning a blind eye to Hamas’s years of incitement to terrorism and cynical use of the agency’s facilities and Gaza residents.” . “human shields.”

Israel has also repeatedly targeted Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, who has criticized Israel for violations of international law and its occupation of Palestinian territories. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was also attacked for allegedly publishing inaccurate reports by Israel. Israel has provided no evidence to support its claims.

In October, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Meirav Eilon Shahar, told reporters that her country had been “disappointed” by the global body, saying her agency’s leaders had not done enough to confront Hamas and growing anti-Semitism condemn.

“We have shared information widely and expect the international community and international organizations, including the WHO, to condemn Hamas for its use of these protected facilities [such as hospitals] for military purposes,” she said.

Guterres reiterated that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify Hamas’ horrific attacks.”

“And these horrific attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”