Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the war in Gaza, amid global pressure to end the ongoing offensive in the enclave.
As he began his speech, dozens of UN delegates walked out of the room in protest.
A total of 157 out of 193 UN nations currently recognize the Palestinian state. Two UN Security Council members, France and the UK, joined ten other members this week to recognize Palestine, ratcheting up pressure on the Israeli PM.
Netanyahu dubbed the wave of recognitions as “shameful, sheer madness, and insane.”
“What you’re doing is giving the ultimate reward to intolerant fanatics who perpetrated and supported the Sabbath massacre. Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7 is like giving al-Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after September 11,” he claimed.
Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” of eliminating Hamas militias in Gaza, also referring to a QR code on his jacket that links to the October 7 atrocities website.
A UN commission of inquiry ruled last week that Israel is “responsible for genocide in Gaza,” citing killings, serious physical and mental harm, the deliberate imposition of life-threatening conditions, and measures aimed at preventing births.
Over 68,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the Israeli operation in Gaza, which was launched in response to a deadly incursion by Hamas into the Jewish state on October 2023.
Netanyahu has denied the accusations of genocide and slammed the countries that recognized Palestine, saying that they were “handing a huge reward to terror.”
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