UN chief Antonio Guterres barred from entering Israel

Foreign minister criticised the UN chief for not 'unequivocally' condemning Iran's missile attack on Israel

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaking at the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East on Sunday. AFP

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Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday barred UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres from entering the country for what he described as his failure to “unequivocally condemn” Iran's missile attack on Israel on Tuesday night.

“Today, I have declared UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country,” Mr Katz said in a statement on X.

Iran launched the largest direct attack on Israel since the war on Gaza started last October, firing what it said were 200 missiles including hypersonic weapons, and sending Israeli civilians into shelters. No casualties were reported in the attack.

“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” Mr Katz said. He accused Mr Guterres of providing support to “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran, the mothership of global terror”.

Mr Guterres issued a statement on Tuesday referencing only the “latest attacks in the Middle East” and condemning the conflict “with escalation after escalation”.

Israel, which put the number of missiles fired at its territory at 180, bombarded Lebanese strongholds of Iran's ally, Hezbollah, in south Lebanon with heavy strikes early on Wednesday. World leaders have urged Iran and Israel to step back from the brink after Tehran's attack.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday's attack was in response to Israel's killing last week of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, as well as the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran bombing in July, widely blamed on Israel.

The attack also sought to avenge Israel's killing of leading Iranian commander Abbas Nilforoushan of the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm, in the strikes that also killed Mr Nasrallah.

Israel said this week it had begun a ground invasion in Lebanon, while Hezbollah on Wednesday said it clashed with Israeli troops who tried to infiltrate a town in the south of the country, as their conflict gradually escalates into street fighting.