He also read out the list of names of the hostages still held in Gaza, and confirmed reports that the speech was being broadcast across speakers there, in the hope, he said, that \u201cour dear hostages hear our message\u201d.<\/p>\n
Relaying the message first in Hebrew, he said: \u201cOur brave heroes, this is Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking to you live from the United Nations. We have not forgotten you, not for a second. The people of Israel are with you. We will not rest and we will not falter until we bring all\u00a0of you home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu added that the speech was\u00a0also being streamed live to the Gazans and warned them that if they failed to return the hostages, \u201cWe will hunt you down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the remaining Hamas leaders and those holding the hostages captive, Netanyahu demanded: \u201cLay down your arms. Let my people go. Free the hostages. All of them. The whole 48. Free the hostages now. If you do, you will live. If you don\u2019t, Israel will hunt you down.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a blistering attack aimed at the Western countries that in recent days have formally recognised a state of Palestine, he said: \u201cFor many countries, when the going got tough, you caved. Israel has had to fight a seven-front war against barbarism, with many of your nations opposing us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAstoundingly, as we fight the terrorists that murdered many of your citizens, you are fighting us. You condemn us. You embargo us, and you wage political and legal warfare against us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not an indictment of Israel, it\u2019s an indictment of you. It\u2019s an indictment of weak leaders who appease evil rather than support a nation whose brave soldiers guard you from the barbarians at the gates. They\u2019re already penetrating your gates.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWhen will you learn? You can\u2019t appease your way out of jihad, and you won\u2019t escape the Islamist storm by sacrificing Israel. To overcome that storm, you have to stand with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on Israel\u2019s military achievements in the wake of October 7, he held up\u00a0a map showing Iran\u2019s \u201cterror axis\u201d that he brought to his address at the previous General Assembly\u00a0a year ago. He said: \u201cHalf of the Houthi leadership in Yemen, gone. Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, gone. Nasrallah in Lebanon, gone. The Assad regime in Syria, gone. Militias in Iraq, deterred, and its leaders will be gone if they attack Israel. Iran\u2019s top military commanders and its top atomic bomb scientists, they\u2019re gone too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also remarked: \u201cWe paged Hezbollah, and they got the message.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibi said of Israel\u2019s 12-day war with Iran, dubbed Operation Rising Lion: \u201cWe removed an existential threat to Israel; an immortal threat to the civilised world. We lifted a dark cloud that could have claimed millions and millions of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
He likened giving the Palestinians a state a mile from Israel following October 7 to giving Al-Qaeda a state next to the US following 9\/11, branding it \u201cmadness\u201d.<\/p>\n
And he declared: \u201cIsrael will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats\u201d or \u201ccommit national suicide\u201d because \u201cyou don\u2019t have the guts\u201d to stand up to the media or antisemites on the streets.<\/p>\n
Addressing the allegation that Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza constitutes a \u201cgenocide\u201d, as a recent UN-commissioned inquiry deemed it to be, he said: \u201cWould a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is targeting to get out?\u2026\u00a0Did the Nazis ask the Jews to get out [to spare them from death]?\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel is not starving Gazans, it is \u201cdeliberately feeding them\u201d, he insisted, in response to numerous\u00a0reports of famine and widespread starvation in the territory.<\/p>\n
This is a breaking news story and is being updated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He also read out the list of names of the hostages still held in Gaza, and confirmed reports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6505,12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-454173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115273716494891440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}