U.N. Chief Guterres Shifts Blame to Israel, Claims Hamas Terror Attack ‘Did Not Happen in a Vacuum’

United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appeared to shift blame onto Israel for the horrific October 7 Hamas attack in which the terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 people, including infants, women, and the elderly.

WATCH — EVIL: See the Aftermath of Hamas Attack on an Israeli KINDERGARTEN

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In a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israel and Hamas on Tuesday, Guterres commented, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” he said, according to a Times of Israel report. “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

Guterres conceded that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas,” but added that the terror attack “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

Israeli envoy to the U.N. Gilad Erdan called Guterres’s remarks “shocking,” “horrible,” and “totally detached from the reality of our region,” according to the report.

“His comments… constitute a justification for terrorism and murder,” Erdan said. “It’s sad that a person with such views is the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust.”

The U.N. has failed to outright condemn the door-to-door killings executed by Hamas terrorists, and has declined to support Israel’s right to self-defense, instead calling for “humanitarian pauses” in the fight against Hamas.

Editor’s Note:  This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.  The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.