Hamas calls for punishing Israeli envoy for tearing UN report on regime's war crimes

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has called for a firm punitive measure against the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, who recently tore up a copy of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s annual report on the Israeli war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu said in a recent press briefing that Gilad Erdan’s behavior on the podium of the UN General Assembly reflected Israel’s arrogance in dealing with international and UN institutions, the Palestinian Information Center reported on Sunday. Qanu said such a behavior “entails taking punitive steps against him.”

“The world has to stop the policy of double standards, do justice to the victims of Israeli massacres, curb this rogue entity and hold its leaders accountable for their crimes against our people.”

On Friday, the Israeli envoy issued a tirade in which he accused the UNHRC of “obsessive anti-Israel bias” and called the report “anti-Semitic,” “distorted” and “one-sided.” The report’s only place was “in the dustbin of anti-Semitism,” he said, before ripping up the copy and leaving the podium.

The report has presented the findings of an investigative body set up to examine the devastating and deadly effects of Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave in May.

Concerning the occupied West Bank, the report censured Israel’s construction of a separation wall there, including around East al-Quds, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

The UNHRC voiced deep concern “at the fragmentation of the occupied Palestinian territory,” including East al-Quds, through settlement activities and other measures. It also said it was “gravely concerned that long-standing impunity for international law violations has allowed for the recurrence of grave violations without consequence.”

Tel Aviv has invariably avoided all attempts at bringing it to account over its decades-long aggression against Palestinians and other regional nations thanks to staunch support by the United States, its oldest and strongest ally.

Israel occupied East al-Quds during the 1967 war and annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that failed to gain recognition of the international community. More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since 1967. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.