UNITED NATIONS (news agencies) — Surrounded by critics and protesters at the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders on Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza, giving a defiant speech despite growing international isolation over his refusal to end the devastating war. “Western leaders may have buckled under the pressure,” he said. “And I guarantee you one thing: Israel won’t.”
Netanyahu’s speech, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began.
Responding to countries’ recent decisions to recognize Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu said: “Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere.”
As the Israeli leader spoke, unintelligible shouts echoed around the hall, while applause came from supporters in the gallery. Seats allotted to the United States — which has backed Netanyahu in his campaign against Hamas — and the United Kingdom were filled by low-level diplomats instead of senior ambassadors or officials. Many seats were vacant; by Iran’s empty chairs stood a compilation of photos of children that Tehran said were killed during Israel’s war there in June.
“Antisemitism dies hard. In fact, it doesn’t die at all,” said Netanyahu, who routinely accuses critics of antisemitism.
Netanyahu faces international isolation, accusations of war crimes and growing pressure to end a conflict he has continued to escalate. Friday’s speech was his chance to push back on the international community’s biggest platform.
He used it to cast Gaza as the lone remaining front in a wider war, listing recent military missions by Israel to target its enemies and contain threats to its security in Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
Those efforts have “opened up possibilities for peace,” he said, noting that Israel has begun negotiations with Syria to reach security arrangements with the new government in Damascus. The final challenge, Netanyahu said, is to root out what he called the “final remnants of Hamas.”
He frequently praised U.S. President Donald Trump, his chief ally in his political and military approach in the region.
As he has often in the past at the United Nations, Netanyahu held up visual aids — including a map of the region titled “THE CURSE,” which chronicles Israel’s challenges in its neighborhood. He marked it up with a large marker. He wore — and pointed out — a pin with a QR code to a site about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that led to the war and about the Israeli hostages taken by the militants.
In what Netanyahu cast as an effort to reach captives still being held in Gaza, the Israeli government set up loudspeakers to blast the speech into the territory, though the military has pushed Palestinians away from its borders. The prime minister’s office also claimed that the Israeli army had taken over mobile phones in Gaza to broadcast his message, though news agencies journalists inside Gaza saw no immediate evidence of such a broadcast.
In Wadi Gaza — near Gaza City, where Israel launched another major ground operation earlier this month — Palestinians who followed the speech responded with a mix of exhaustion and enduring commitment to their long-sought state.
“Whether he likes it or not, sooner or later, the Palestinian people will gain independence,” said Moneir Talib, who has been displaced from Gaza City.
Amjad Abdel Daiym expressed similar feelings but added: “We are psychologically, physically, morally and financially tired from everything…. When he says that he wants to continue the war to eradicate Hamas members, or Hamas movement or the Hamas government, I only see that the war is continuing against poor people like us.”
Hamas, meanwhile, accused Netanyahu of making false justifications to continue the war. “If he were truly concerned about his captives, he would have stopped his brutal bombardment, genocidal massacres and the destruction of Gaza City,” Hamas said in a statement on its website. “Instead, he lies and continues to endanger their lives.”
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