United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is “offering a lifeline to Hamas” by calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, Mark Regev, a senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an interview with CNN on Saturday.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for urgent steps to allow “safe” and “unhindered” humanitarian access throughout Gaza on Friday but stopping short of calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
“We thank the United States for its diplomatic support at the United Nations, for preventing that sort of resolution from passing the Security Council,” Regev said.
The US abstained on Friday’s resolution after vetoing previous efforts on the Israel-Hamas war at the UN Security Council.
When asked about a claim by the senior Israeli defense ministry official with responsibilities for Gaza, Moshe Tetro, that “there is no food shortage in Gaza,” Regev said there were trucks of food that Israel had authorized during the past few days. He added that the trucks were still waiting at the crossing to enter, and “not because of Israel.”
“One has to ask the following question, which is, ‘Is it possible that Hamas knows that its only chance to survive is by sacrificing the people of Gaza and by saying we will not allow humanitarian aid to be distributed?'” Regev said.
He also defended Israel’s calls for people to move from certain areas of Gaza, saying that “all the troubles in relocating is nothing compared to the possibility of getting killed by being caught up in the crossfire.
Regev said the Israeli Defense Forces’ earlier calls for people to move South out of the North was “common sense” and “the right thing to do” given the circumstances.
“Now that fighting has started in the South, we’ve had to be more specific, and we’ve asked people to go to specific areas where we don’t intend to see serious, intensive fighting,” Regev said.