Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him for committing war crimes in Gaza, on Friday faced a diplomatic embarrassment as scores of delegates exited the United Nations General Assembly hall as he took the stage.
At the same time, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic near Times Square in New York.
As the session's chairman called for order in the iconic hall of the 193-member Assembly, there were loud boos from opponents and also some cheers from Israeli supporters while delegates streamed out, leaving masses of empty seats, reflecting growing international isolation over his refusal to end the devastating war in Gaza.
The US delegation, which has backed Netanyahu in his campaign against Hamas, stayed in the hall. The few world powers there, the United States and the United Kingdom, did not send their most senior officials or even their UN ambassador to their section. Instead, it was filled out with more junior, low-level diplomats.
Since Oct 7, 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.
Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister declared in his defiant speech to the UN General Assembly that he will press on with the war in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated.
He sharply denounced Western countries for embracing Palestinian statehood, accusing them of sending the message that "murdering Jews pays off".
The Israeli leader pushed back in his harshest terms yet against a flurry of diplomatic moves by leading US allies that deepened Israel's international isolation over its conduct of a nearly two-year-old war in Gaza.
"This week, the leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries unconditionally recognised a Palestinian state," he said.
"They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on October 7 -- horrors praised on that day by nearly 90% of the Palestinian population."
Calling it a "mark of shame," Netanyahu said: "You know what message the leaders who recognize the Palestinian state this week sent to the Palestinians? It's a very clear message: murdering Jews pays off."
With more countries joining the list of those endorsing Palestinian independence, the most right-wing government in Israeli history has made its strongest declaration in years that there will be no Palestinian state as it pushes on with its fight against Hamas following the October 7, 2023, rampage in Israel.
"Over time, many world leaders buckled. They buckled under the pressure of a biased media, radical Islamist constituencies and antisemitic mobs. There's a familiar saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, for many countries here, when the going got tough, you caved," Netanyahu said.
"Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel's superb intelligence services that have prevented, time and again, terrorist attacks in their capitals."
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said in a statement that Netanyahu's speech was "filled with lies and blatant contradictions" and condemned it as a "desperate attempt to justify the war crimes and acts of genocide".
Frustration over Israel's military siege and US President Donald Trump's unwillingness to rein Netanyahu in has spilled into the open at the annual New York gathering where, in a dramatic shift, Australia, Britain, Canada and France and several other nations embraced a Palestinian state. They said such action was needed to preserve the prospect for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and help bring the war to a close.
Netanyahu followed to the rostrum Arab and Muslim leaders who, one after another, strongly condemned Israel's military assault in Gaza.
Addressing the UN shortly after Netanyahu, Prime Minister Micheal Martin of Ireland, which recognised Palestine last year, called Israel's actions in Gaza "an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law". The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the Gaza war. Israel rejects the court's jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes.
Netanyahu rebutted what he called "the false charge of genocide." Hamas has offered to release all remaining hostages – only about 20 of whom are said to be alive out of a total of 48 – in exchange for Israel agreeing to end the war and withdrawing from Gaza.
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