UN delegates walk out at Netanyahu defends Israeli military action

Dozens of United Nations delegates left the room in support of Palestine as the Israeli prime minister prepared to begin his address to the general assembly on Thursday.

Benjamin Netanyahu called them “moral cowards”,  while Israeli supporters were seen standing up and clapping in support of him.

The prime minister used his speech to dismiss genocide claims and defend his country’s military action in Gaza, Iran, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Netanyahu pointed to the efforts he claimed Israel had made to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, while accusing Hamas of using them as "human shields".

He described the genocide allegations in Gaza as the "the greatest lie of the century" and claimed that "we'd all be dead" if it weren't for the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

In his speech, Netanyahu called Turkey the "super spreader of anti-Semitic lies" and added that several foreign countries "spent untold billions to spread lies" about Israel through social media.

The Israeli prime minister also berated New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for calling him a war criminal, and accused him of trying to block his visit.

"You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth," said Netanyahu.

The prime minister also called out Western European leaders for what he described as succumbing to "antisemitic mobs", and accused both Qatar and Turkey of spreading lies about Israel.

But the walkout underscored the competing pressures on Netanyahu amid growing international isolation of Israel over the Gaza war.

At the same time, back home, he is campaigning for re-election ahead of a 27 October vote, even as he faces a long-running corruption trial.

Netanyahu is also the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court which accuses him of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.