UNITED NATIONS (United States) (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed at the UN Friday to press his country's offensive against Lebanon's Hezbollah, dashing hopes for a 21-day truce proposed by France and the United States this week.
Netanyahu's highly anticipated turn at the United Nations, during which he repeatedly denounced the global organization as anti-Israel, was met with jeers by some delegates who walked out, but cheers and applause from his backers.
"As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safe," Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly.
"We will continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met."
His remarks appeared to undermine a truce proposal unveiled by the United States and France after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN gathering.
The White House has said that the ceasefire call had been "coordinated" with Israel, but Netanyahu's office on Thursday said that the prime minister had not responded to the proposal.
Netanyahu also issued a blunt warning to Iran in his UN address, saying: "I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.
"There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that's true of the entire Middle East," he added.
Delegates representing Lebanon, Iran, the Palestinians and others exited the room as Netanyahu took the rostrum for his speech.
"We have no interest in listening to the war criminal Netanyahu and to his lies," Majed Bamya, the Palestinian deputy ambassador to the UN, wrote on X alongside an image of his delegation's empty seats.
Netanyahu was "promising to repeat the atrocities committed in Gaza in Lebanon, (he) has nothing to do at the podium of the General Assembly," Bamya added in a subsequent post.
Netanyahu said at the start of his speech that "after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight."
Ahead of his appearance, protesters gathered outside Netanyahu's hotel in New York to demand an end to the violence in Gaza and Lebanon.
'DEADLIEST PERIOD'
Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a deadly exchange of cross-border fire since the Iran-backed group's Palestinian ally, Hamas, attacked Israel on October 7.
Netanyahu vowed Friday that "Hamas has got to go" and would have no role in the reconstruction of Gaza as he vowed to fight until "total victory."
Since Monday, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to its northern front with Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed 700 people and sparked an exodus of around 118,000 people.
The UN said Friday that a "catastrophic" intensification of Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah militants had left Lebanon facing its "deadliest period... in a generation."
The Israeli strikes have brought the overall death toll in Lebanon to more than 1,500 people killed in nearly a year of clashes, according to Lebanese authorities.
That toll surpasses the 1,200 mostly civilians killed during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which also killed around 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.