Israel has denied a visa to top UN official Martin Griffiths, following comments from UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

According to BBC News, Mr. Guterres said the Hamas attacks on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum”, as there had been “56 years of suffocating occupation”.

At the same time, he declared that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas”.

In response, Israel’s ambassador to the UN says Mr Griffiths will not be allowed into Israel, and that other UN staff “will be refused”.

Mr Griffiths is the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

BBC News has also quoted Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan as saying that the next steps should be to expel “hostile UN officials” from Israel who present a false picture of what is going on.

Mr Erdan also allegedly stated that the UN Secretary General asked to speak to PM Benjamin Netanyahu twice since October 7th – but Netanyahu “refused to accept his call”.

(Feature Photo: Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu)