Netanyahu defends Israeli military action as delegates walk out before UN speech

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Netanyahu defends Israeli military action as delegates walk out before UN speech Figure caption, Watch: UN delegates walk out of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's speechByJaroslav Lukiv and Tom Bateman , State department correspondentPublished24 September 2026Updated 6 minutes agoIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fiercely defended his country's military campaigns in Iran, Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East in a speech to the UN General Assembly. After dozens of delegates walked out in protest as he took to the stage, Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting: "We're going to win. We have no other choice.

"In response to the walkout, he said: "If there are any other moral cowards who haven't left the hall, please do so now. "The Israeli leader also rejected accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Hours earlier, in a recorded message Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN that Israeli policies - in particular the illegal expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank - threatened "the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland".

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He also said it jeopardised the two-state solution, which is an internationally backed formula for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Abbas said that Palestinians were being subjected to "killing, destruction, starvation and attempts at displacement, as well as a genocidal war" in Gaza by the Israeli military. The Palestinian leader was addressing the annual gathering via a video link because he had been denied a US entry visa.

Image source, EPA/ShutterstockImage caption, Reconstruction has yet to begin in Gaza almost a year after a ceasefire came into forceNetanyahu, who is subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, launched scathing attacks on nations and leaders who have criticised him. "They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism - some colonialism. And who's accusing us?

Among them are people in Britain and in France. For God's sake, they invented the term," he said. He went on to label Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tyrant", accusing him of supporting the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

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Erdogan told the UN on Tuesday that the injustices faced by those in Gaza and the West Bank "deeply offends the conscience of humanity". Netanyahu's comments drew a sharp response from the Turkish presidency's communications director Burhanettin Duran. The Israeli PM's use of the UN General Assembly podium to level "baseless accusations" against Turkey and Erdogan was incompatible with the UN's "ideals of peace, law and dialogue", Duran said, according to state-run news agency Anadolu.

New York City's left-wing mayor Zohran Mamdani - who had previously vowed to arrest Netanyahu but later said he did not have the authority to do so - was also criticised by the Israeli leader. "Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York," the Israeli prime minister said.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.