UN calls Israel's ban on its top leader a political statement in long-running rift

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations on Wednesday called Israel’s ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country a political statement by its foreign minister and stressed that the world body’s contacts with Israel will continue “because they have to.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz deeming the U.N. chief “persona non grata” is also “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.”

Israel’s accusations of U.N. bias and antisemitism date back decades, but the rift has intensified since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in the country’s south killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza. Israel’s offensive against the militant group has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but that a little more than half were women and children.

An Israeli ground incursion in Lebanon and other attacks against Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group also backed by Iran, and an Iranian missile strike against Israel on Tuesday have threatened to plunge the Middle East into all-out war. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday on the Middle East.

Guterres didn't respond to a question about the ban as he headed to the meeting, where he demanded a halt to the escalation of “tit-for-tat violence” that he warned is leading people in the Middle East “straight over the cliff.”

Earlier in the day, Katz accused Guterres of being biased against Israel and claimed the U.N. chief never condemned the Hamas attacks and sexual violence committed by its fighters.

Dujarric strongly disagreed, saying Guterres has condemned “over and over again the terror attacks, the acts of sexual violence and other horrors that we’ve seen.”

But the Israeli government strongly objected to the secretary-general’s phrase in his initial condemnation that said Hamas’ attack didn’t happen “in a vacuum.”

Israel also has accused staff from the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, called UNRWA — the key provider of assistance in Gaza, of being Hamas members and participating in the Oct. 7 attacks and has curtailed their activities.

The U.N.’s internal watchdog has been investigating those Israeli allegations. UNRWA said Monday that a top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was an employee who had been suspended since allegations of his ties to the militant group emerged in March.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has accused Israel of trying to destroy its operations. The agency provides education, health care, food and other services to several million Palestinians and their families.

Guterres also has accused Israel of “collective punishment” of Palestinians in its nearly yearlong military response to the Hamas attacks in Gaza, saying he has not seen so much death and destruction during his seven years as secretary-general.

Dujarric said that in his 24 years at the U.N., there have been U.N. staff declared persona non grata by a country but that he didn’t know of a secretary-general being banned.

He stressed that the United Nations has never recognized the concept being applied to U.N. staff.

Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the practice applies to a country declaring a diplomat persona non grata — not an international organization.

“We continue our contacts with Israel at the operational level and other levels, because we need to,” Dujarric said.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, at UN headquarters. (UNTV via AP)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sep. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

As Hurricane Helene roared outside, the wind howling and branches snapping, John Savage went to his grandparents' bedroom to make sure they were OK.

“We heard one snap and I remember going back there and checking on them,” the 22-year-old said of his grandparents, Marcia, 74, and Jerry, 78, who were lying in bed. “They were both fine, the dog was fine.”

But not long after, Savage and his father heard a “boom” — the sound of one of the biggest trees on the property in Beech Island, South Carolina, crashing on top of his grandparents’ bedroom and killing them.

“All you could see was ceiling and tree,” he said. “I was just going through sheer panic at that point.”

John Savage said his grandparents were found hugging one another in the bed, adding that the family thinks it was God’s plan to take them together, rather than one suffer without the other.

“When they pulled them out of there, my grandpa apparently heard the tree snap beforehand and rolled over to try and protect my grandmother,” he said.

They are among the more than 150 people confirmed dead in one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history. Dozens of them died just like the Savages, victims of trees that feel on homes or cars. The dead include two South Carolina firefighters killed when a tree fell on their truck.

The storm battered communities across multiple states, flooding homes, causing mudslides and wiping out cell service.

Jerry Savage did all sorts of handy work, but he worked mostly as an electrician and a carpenter. He went “in and out of retirement because he got bored,” John Savage said. “He'd get that spirit back in him to go back out and work.”

Tammy Estep, 54, called her father a “doer" and the hardest worker she knew.

Marcia Savage was a retired bank teller. She was very active at their church and loved being there as often as she could, said granddaughter Katherine Savage, 27. She had a beautiful voice and was always singing, especially gospel. Estep said her mother loved cooking for her family, making an awesome turkey for Thanksgiving and known for her banana pudding.

Condolences posted on social media remembered the couple as generous, kind and humble.

John and Katherine spent many years of their childhood living in a trailer behind their grandparents' house, and John and his father had been staying with his grandparents for the last few years. Even with some of the recent storms to hit their community, trees fell further up in the yard and "we had not had anything like that happen” before, he said.

Over decades, the house would fill with family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, plus Easter egg hunts in the large yard.

A GoFundMe organized for their funeral expenses says they were survived by their son and daughter, along with four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Katherine Savage said her grandparents, especially Marcia, always offered to help her with her own three sons and would see the boys almost every day.

“I haven’t even told my boys yet because we don’t know how," she said.

The two were teenage sweethearts and married for over 50 years. Estep said their love was “immediate, and it was everlasting.”

“They loved each other to their dying day,” John Savage said.

This photo provided by Laurel Lindsay shows Marcia and Jerry Savage, who were killed by a tree that fell and crushed their bedroom during Hurricane Helene. (Laurel Lindsay/Second Baptist Church of Beech Island, S.C.)