Israel rejected a visa request made by the UN’s aid chief and threatened to expel its officials from the country after Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general, was accused of attempting to justify Hamas’s attack.

Mr Guterres on Tuesday linked the October 7 cross-border onslaught, which saw Hamas gunmen kill some 1,400 Israelis and take more than 200 people hostage, to the “suffocating occupation” of the Palestinian territories.

He later appeared to temper his comments after Israeli outrage.

But Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the country would deny visas to the world body’s officials over Mr Guterres’ suggestion that the Hamas attack “did not happen in a vacuum”.

“Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives,” Mr Erdan told Army Radio.

“We have already refused a visa for under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”

Mr Griffiths is a British diplomat who has previously worked as a UN special envoy for Yemen and Syria.

The Tel Aviv news channel I24 reported that Mr Erdan was also considering expelling UN officials from Israel in response.

It was unclear what the action, if followed through with, would mean for UN aid personnel working in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel had already demanded the resignation of Mr Guterres after accusing him of expressing “an understanding for terrorism and murder”.

The UN chief told the Security Council in New York on Tuesday, that there had been “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza, including Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields and Israel’s bombing of the enclave’s south after urging one million people to evacuate there from the territory’s north.

“It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” he said.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

“But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.  And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

The speech prompted a furious response from the Israeli delegation, who called for Mr Guterres’s immediate resignation and claimed he had “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder”.

Following the backlash, the UN secretary-general said later on Tuesday that “nothing can justify the killing, wounding, and abducting of civilians by Hamas”.

“After meeting with families whose loved ones have been taken hostage, I reaffirm my call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages held in Gaza,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Israel has pledged to wipe out Hamas following its attack earlier this month and has launched an intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Israeli forces. The territory’s hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and on the verge of collapse as fuel runs out.

Eli Cohen, the Israeli foreign minister, told the Security Council on Tuesday that the proportionate response to the Hamas attack is “a total destruction” of the Iran-backed group.

“It is not only Israel’s right to destroy Hamas. It’s our duty,” he said.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, meanwhile criticised countries that have condemned Israel for its retaliatory air and artillery strikes on Gaza but refuse to speak out against the massacre of civilians by Hamas.

“Where’s the outrage? Where’s the revulsion? Where’s the rejection? Where’s the explicit condemnation of these horrors?” he asked.

But Mr Blinken also called for restraint from Israel, saying that while it had the right to defend itself, “the way it does so matters”.