UNITED NATIONS: Several envoys walked out of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium to deliver his address, staging a boycott of his speech.
In his address, he said Israel accused of deliberately starving people of Gaza, when Israel is deliberately feeding people of Gaza.
He said that Israel dropped millions of leaflets, sent millions of text messages, made countless phone calls urging civilians to leave Gaza city.
He asked would a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?
In his message to western leaders, Netanyahu said that israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats.
He urged Hamas to accept Israel’s terms and release all hostages, saying the war could end immediately if the militants comply.
“If Hamas agrees to our demands, the war could end right now,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly. “Gaza would be demilitarised, Israel would retain overriding security control, and a peaceful civilian authority would be established by Gazans and others, committed to peace with Israel.”
Addressing Hamas and those holding hostages directly, he warned of dire consequences if they failed to cooperate. “Lay down your arms. Let my people go. Free the hostages — all of them — free the hostages now. If you do, you will live. If you don’t, Israel will hunt you down,” he said.
Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence was broadcasting his message into Gaza. “Thanks to special efforts by Israeli intelligence, my words are also being carried, streamed live, to the cellphones of Gazans,” he said. He added that loudspeakers around Gaza were connected to his microphone so hostages might hear his voice. “Our brave heroes, this is PM Netanyahu speaking to you live from the UN. We have not forgotten, not even for a second. The people of Israel are with you. We will not falter and we will not rest until we bring all of you home.”
He accused the remaining Hamas leadership of seeking to repeat the Oct 7 attacks and said that was why “Israel must finish the job.” Netanyahu claimed that “final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City” and reiterated his government’s determination to eliminate the group’s capacity to strike again.
Turning to regional threats, Netanyahu urged renewed United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran and called for the elimination of its enriched uranium stockpiles. He thanked the United States — naming President Donald Trump — for what he described as “bold and decisive action” against Iran’s nuclear sites, and said the two leaders had acted to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Detailing what he said were Israel’s wider military efforts over the past year, Netanyahu claimed his forces had hit Houthi targets, degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities, struck arms depots in Syria, and deterred militias in Iraq. He also asserted that Iran’s “atomic weapons and ballistic weapons programme” had been devastated and named several regional figures he said had been removed.
Many of Netanyahu’s assertions were presented as his account to the Assembly. Several envoys staged a walkout as he took the podium earlier in the session.
Earlier, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that the October 7 attack on Israel did not represent his people and that he condemned antisemitism, as he talked about a future without Hamas.
However, Abbas said Palestine required support from the international community for government reforms “and conducting presidential and parliamentary elections within a year after the end of the war”.