Israel National News reports: “A United Nations official came under fire from Israel on Thursday, after he claimed in a TV interview that ‘Hamas is not a terrorist group for us’.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, spoke to Sky News on Wednesday and, when asked whether he thought Israel’s plan to eliminate Hamas was realistic, replied, ‘I think it’s very difficult. I’ve worked with many many many different terrorist and insurgent groups. Hamas is not a terrorist group for us. It’s a political movement.’

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy posted a video of the remarks to X and wrote, ‘Martin Griffiths denies Hamas is a terrorist organization. No wonder he is abusing his power to save Hamas’ skin after the deadliest terror attack since 9/11 instead of demanding its surrender.’…

Following the uproar, Griffiths issued a clarification on Thursday, writing on X, ‘Just to clarify: Hamas is not on the list of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council.’

‘This doesn’t make their acts of terror on 7 October any less horrific and reprehensible, as I’ve been saying all along,’ he added…”