Israel revoked the visa of United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings amid growing tensions with the global body due to the Gaza war.
“I decided to revoke the residence visa to Israel of the UN "humanitarian" coordinator Lynn Hastings,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wrote in a post on X.
He took issue with her position concerning Hamas’s October 7 infiltration of southern Israel, where it killed over 1,200 people and seized some 250 hostages.
“Someone who did not condemn Hamas for the brutal massacre of 1,200 Israelis, for the kidnapping of babies and the elderly and for the horrific acts of abuse and rape, and for using the residents of Gaza as human shields, but instead condemns Israel, a democratic country that protects its citizens, cannot serve in the UN and cannot enter Israel!,” Cohen wrote.
“We will no longer be silent in the face of the bias of the UN!,” he exclaimed.
Hastings had harshly criticized IDF actions in Gaza
He revoked Hastings' visa after she harshly criticized Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. The UN has warned that the campaign, which has displaced some 1.8 million of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, has created a humanitarian disaster. Hamas has asserted that some 16,000 Palestinians have been killed in war-related violence.
Hastings said on Monday, “Nowhere is safe in Gaza and there is nowhere left to go.
“The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond.”