Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu told the world from the United Nations on Friday that the multiple conflicts in the Middle East were far from resolved, and vowed to continue fighting Lebanese Hezbollah and defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip until achieving “total victory.” ”.
Shortly after the prime minister spoke, explosions rocked the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and the Israeli military said it had attacked Hezbollah’s headquarters. The attack appeared to target Hezbollah’s leader and prompted Netanyahu to cut his trip to New York short by a day and make a rare trip on the Jewish Sabbath to return home.
“Israel has every right to eliminate this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely. And that is exactly what we are doing,” Netanyahu said, drawing applause from his supporters in the General Assembly gallery. “We will continue to degrade Hezbollah until all our objectives are met.”
When Netanyahu entered the room and was introduced, boos and raised voices rang out, and many delegates left through various exits.
Netanyahu spoke as international mediation efforts were underway to try to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon, where Israel has been heavily attacking Hezbollah targets over the past week, raising the death toll in Lebanon to hundreds and raising fears. that the conflict could escalate. to a total war.
On Wednesday night, the United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire to allow negotiations. Israel said Thursday that discussions were ongoing and Hezbollah has not officially responded to the ceasefire proposal but has said it will not stop shooting until the Gaza war ends.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day after the Hamas attack on October 7 in an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Since then, the sides have exchanged relatively low-level fire almost daily, volleys that escalated markedly after a wave of communications device explosions targeting Hezbollah operatives, an attack widely attributed to Israel. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
Netanyahu defends Israel’s responses
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
Netanyahu has faced increasing pressure from within his own government and from Israelis displaced by the fighting to deal a severe blow to Hezbollah. Recent strikes have targeted the group’s senior leaders.
“Imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns… How long would the US government tolerate that?” he said, shaking his fist emphatically. “Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, today I came here to say: enough is enough.”
Netanyahu accused Iran of being a destabilizing force in the region and highlighted its support for both Hamas and Hezbollah. He warned Tehran that “if you attack us, we will attack you.” As he spoke, the Iranian delegation’s seats were empty. Outside, protesters against Netanyahu and Israel’s policies demonstrated behind police barricades.
Armed with visual aids as he has been in the past, the prime minister defended his nation’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war that has devastated the Gaza Strip. He said Israel had destroyed much of Hamas’s rocket arsenal, killed or captured half of its fighting forces and dismantled many of its underground tunnels. He said Israel was “focused on eliminating Hamas’ remaining combat capabilities.”
But the war in Gaza will soon enter its second year and there is still no end in sight. Multiple attempts to reach a ceasefire have stalled due to Hamas’s demand that Israel withdraw all troops and end the war, and Israel’s insistence on maintaining a presence in some areas. Meanwhile, civilians have borne a staggering toll due to continued violence; Approximately 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and injured more than 96,000, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas government in Gaza, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but more than half of the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 children under 2 years old.
Israel has maintained that its military operations are justified and necessary to defend itself.
“This war can come to an end now. “All that has to happen is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its weapons and release all the hostages,” Netanyahu said. “But if they don’t – if they don’t – we will fight until we achieve total victory. Total victory. “There is no substitute for it.”
His speech impacted the rest of the General Assembly
In a speech rife with talk of conflict, Netanyahu also made a lengthy appeal to Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia, echoing the content of his speech last year, when efforts toward that goal were underway. But the US-backed normalization talks were derailed by the Hamas attacks, which refocused attention on Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, calling into question Netanyahu’s argument that ties with Saudi Arabia do not depend on Palestinian statehood.
When Netanyahu took the stage on Friday morning, there was so much commotion in the audience that the presiding diplomat had to shout: “Order, please.”
The two speakers who preceded Netanyahu on Friday insisted on criticizing Israel for its actions.
“Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said in closing his remarks, hitting the podium. And Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking just before the Israeli leader, declared of Gaza: “This is not just a conflict. This is a systematic killing of innocent people in Palestine.” He hit the stands, eliciting loud applause.
It wasn’t just Friday either. On Thursday, the leader of the Palestinian Authority and a senior Lebanese official presented their cases to their fellow leaders, cases that also included harsh words for Israel. Mahmoud Abbas’s first words before the General Assembly were a phrase repeated three times in reference to Gaza: “We will not leave. We won’t leave. “We are not leaving.” He accused Israel of destroying Gaza and making it uninhabitable. And Abdallah Bouhabib, Lebanon’s foreign minister, denounced Israel’s “systematic destruction of Lebanese border villages.”
“The crisis in Lebanon threatens the entire Middle East,” Bouhabib said. “Today we wish to reiterate our call for a ceasefire on all fronts.”
At the General Assembly on Friday night, Iran exercised its “right of response” at the end of the day’s regular speeches and denounced Israel as “the sole source of insecurity and instability in the region and beyond.”
“What you heard here today from the famous Israeli prime minister was nothing more than a failed attempt to distract from his genocide and his brutal war crimes,” said an Iranian diplomat whose name was not immediately available. He addressed the General Assembly in English.
