Netanyahu defends Israeli military action as delegates walk out before UN speech

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a combative address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, defending his country's military actions across the region. At the very start of his roughly 40-minute speech, dozens of delegates from multiple countries walked out of the hall in protest, some jeering and booing as they left. Netanyahu responded by calling those departing "moral cowards" and telling anyone else who felt similarly that they were free to leave before he continued.

The speech, broadcast live during prime time on all four of Israel's major television channels, took aim at a wide range of critics. Netanyahu reserved particular criticism for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom he accused of antisemitism. He also directed sharp words at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar, and several Western European governments, including France and the United Kingdom, accusing them of spreading falsehoods about Israel. At the same time, he defended Israel's military strike on Iran, describing it as one of the easiest decisions of his career.

Netanyahu rejected accusations that Israel was carrying out a systematic genocide in Gaza, framing Israel's military campaign as a response to threats from Hamas and other regional actors. According to reports, he displayed a pager device during his remarks, a reference to an earlier operation in which Israeli intelligence reportedly rigged pagers with explosives before they reached operatives of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

Reactions to the speech were sharp. Mayor Mamdani pushed back, stating that "no lie" would change the outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu. He accused the Israeli leader of using the speech to sanitize what he called a "genocide of Palestinians." Hamas also condemned the address, calling it "rife with lies" that contradicted United Nations reports on conditions in the Palestinian territories.

Outside UN headquarters, the speech triggered significant protests. According to multiple reports, hundreds of demonstrators gathered, including Jewish, Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese New Yorkers as well as elected officials. New York police reportedly arrested more than 100 people, among them public figures including actor Susan Sarandon and activist Chelsea Manning.

As Netanyahu spoke, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the assembly via a prerecorded video message after he and other Palestinian officials were denied US visas for the second consecutive year. Abbas renewed his call for a two-state solution and accused Israel of waging a "genocidal war" against Palestinians.

The speech took place against the backdrop of what several reports described as deepening diplomatic isolation for Israel. Netanyahu's schedule in New York reportedly did not include meetings with US or other Western leaders. His office is also said to have paid for approximately 500 pro-Israel and anti-Iran billboards, along with several trucks carrying similar messages, across Manhattan ahead of the speech. The address came weeks before pivotal elections in Israel in which Netanyahu's political future is at stake.

It remains to be seen how the diplomatic rifts between Israel and several traditional partners will evolve in the coming weeks, particularly amid growing criticism from parts of Western Europe as well as the Arab and Muslim world. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, described by several reports as still dire despite an existing ceasefire, is also likely to remain at the center of international debate.