Audience shouts 'shame', delegates walk out as Israel's Netanyahu addresses UNGA

Many delegates started leaving theUnited Nations General Assembly (UNGA)as Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu started addressing the world leaderson Friday (Sep 27). The audience started shouting 'shame shame', promptingthe Jewish leader to startoffbypledging to counter 'slander' at the world body.

"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," Netanyahu said.

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The Israeli PM also warned Iran that if it dares to strike his country, "we will strike you back." He added that there was no place in Iran that Israeli agencies couldn't reach.

The leader slammed Gaza's Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, saying both militant groups had fired more than 8,000 rockets at Israel since the war began on October 7.

The Israeli PMsaidthat "Hamas has got to go" and the militant group would have no role in the reconstruction of Gaza as he vowed to fight until "total victory."

"If Hamas stays in power, it will regroup... and attack Israel again and again and again... So Hamas has got to go," Netanyahu said to diplomats.

He also slammed the United Nations forits unfair treatment of his country, saying it had become a "contemptuous farce".

"I say to you, until Israel – until the Jewish state – is treated like other nations, until this anti-Semitic swamp is drained, the UN will be viewed by fair-minded people everywhere as nothing more than a contemptuous farce," he said.

Since Monday, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to its northern front with Lebanon where heavy bombing has reportedly killed 700 people and sparked an exodus of around 118,000 people.

Netanyahu said Israel would continue the strikes on Lebanon "until we meet our objectives."

The UN, on Friday, said that a "catastrophic" intensification of Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah militants had left Lebanon facing its "deadliest period... in a generation."

(With inputs from agencies)

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