Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his leadership strained by conflicts on two fronts, took to the UN General Assembly podium on Friday and said he had decided to travel to the New York session to refute what he characterized as “lies and slanders” he had heard from other leaders this week from the same podium.
Netanyahu, armed with visual aids, forcefully defended his nation’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas on Israel that triggered a military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu said Israeli forces have destroyed “90 per cent” of Hamas’s rockets and killed or captured half of its forces.
“We are winning!” he said of Israel’s response.
He added that any role in a post-war Gaza for Hamas, considered a terrorist group by several Western nations, must be rejected.
Netanyahu said the operation in Gaza is being guided by the “sacred mission” of returning all hostages taken to Gaza nearly one year ago. The prime minister said that 154 hostages have been repatriated to Israel, though 37 from that number were no longer alive.
“We will not rest until the remaining hostages are returned, too,” he said.
The Hamas-led attacks also killed about 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government, including citizens from several countries, including Canada.
Warning to Iran
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but more than half the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 children under the age of 2.
Netanyahu repeated his assertion that Israel is not deliberately targeting civilians in densely populated Gaza, though South Africa has brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing of it committing genocide against the Palestinians there.
Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, accused Israel from the same rostrum on Thursday of destroying Gaza and making it unlivable. Abbas also said that his government should govern post-war Gaza as part of an independent Palestinian state, a vision that Israel’s government rejects.
Abbas has had little influence in Gaza since Hamas overthrew his forces and seized power of the territory in 2007.
Netanyahu insisted that Israel wanted peace, pointing to the positive strides made in the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia in recent years.
He saved much invective for Iran, the country he again blamed for being behind many of the problems in the region, as is supports Hamas and Hezbollah. The UN for too long had “appeased Iran,” he alleged.
He warned of a muscular response if Iran repeated an attack such as its unprecedented missile salvo toward Israel in April.
“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel can’t reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East,” he said.
As he spoke, the seats in the Iran delegation sat empty. Outside, protesters against Netanyahu and Israel’s policies demonstrated behind police barricades.
Addresses campaign against Hezbollah
In recent days, Israel has turned its attention to the border with Lebanon, where it is targeting Hezbollah militants and has inflicted civilian casualties as well. Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after Oct. 7, and ongoing fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border.
Netanyahu referred to the estimated 60,000 who fled as “refugees in their own home land.” Israel is vowing to step up its attacks on Hezbollah until its citizens can return safely to their homes.
CBC News senior international correspondent Margaret Evans says the streets of Beirut are quiet for a city its size. Many people are trying to escape Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon’s south, moving farther north in the country, into Syria or overseas.
He repeated his assertion made more than once this week that Israel’s objections are not with the Lebanese people.
“Don’t let Hezbollah drag Lebanon into the abyss,” he said.
Late Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire on the Lebanon front to allow for negotiations as fears grow that the violent escalation in recent days could grow into an all-out war.
The United Nations says over 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, bringing the total to 200,000 people who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas.
Abdallah Bouhabib, Lebanon’s foreign minister, decried Israel’s “systematic destruction of Lebanese border villages” in his Thursday address at the same venue.
“The crisis in Lebanon threatens the entire Middle East,” Bouhabib said. “We wish today to reiterate our call for a ceasefire on all fronts.”
Shortly after Netanyahu finished his address, the Israeli military said it carried out a “precise strike” on the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut. The Israeli army’s spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, made the announcement in a televised address after the explosion in Beirut sent massive clouds of orange and black smoke billowing in the skies on Friday afternoon.
Disturbance before speech
As Netanyahu took the stage, there was enough ruckus in the audience that the presiding diplomat had to shout, “Order, please.”
The two speakers who preceded Netanyahu on Friday each made a point of calling out Israel for its actions.
“Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said as he closed his remarks, pounding the podium.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking just before the Israeli leader, declared of Gaza: “This is not just a conflict. This is systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine.” He thumped the rostrum to audible applause.
