The United Nations Security Council must “condemn Hamas” and designate it as a terrorist organization, “with consequences for anyone who continues to support it,” United States ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the council on Tuesday.
Haley noted that UN officials recently discovered a terror tunnel beneath two UN schools in Gaza. She explained that Hamas uses these tunnels to smuggle components for rockets or help terrorists infiltrate Israel. The incident showed that Hamas is “so ruthless that it will not hesitate to put the lives of innocent children on the line,” Haley said.
Referring to her visit to Israel earlier this month, Haley called the situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip “heartbreaking” but “preventable.”
“We should never forget the responsibility for this humanitarian crisis rests squarely with the one group that actually controls Gaza: Hamas,” she said, observing that Israel withdrew all of its soldiers and citizens from Gaza over ten years ago.
She then elaborated:
Hamas has exercised control over Gaza since 2007. After 10 years of Hamas rule, life for the people of Gaza is worse than ever before. Rather than govern, Hamas chooses to devote its resources to building a terrorist arsenal. Rather than pursuing peace, Hamas chooses to provoke destructive wars. Rather than allowing help to reach the Palestinian people, Hamas chooses to divert untold amounts of aid to feed its military enterprise.
Haley recalled walking through a Hamas terror tunnel that the IDF uncovered, which was thickly lined with concrete. The tunnel served as evidence of “how Hamas uses the concrete Gaza receives – not to help the people, but to fortify its terrorist infrastructure.”
“The Security Council must unite to say that enough is enough,” Haley urged. “We need to pressure Hamas to end its tyranny over the people of Gaza. We should condemn Hamas in this Council’s resolutions and statements. We should name Hamas as the group responsible when rockets are fired from Gaza, or when fresh tunnels are discovered. And we should designate Hamas as a terrorist organization in a resolution, with consequences for anyone who continues to support it.”
[Photo: U.S. Department of State / YouTube ]