World leaders repeatedly call Gaza crisis ‘genocide’ as Israel’s war dominates opening sessions of UNGA

As world leaders converged on New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly's 81st session on Tuesday, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the crisis in Gaza and the illegal settler violence in the Occupied West Bank featured prominently in the speeches.
Secretary-General António Guterres set an unusually sharp tone in his last speech, warning that humanity faces four "tests of power": war, inequality, climate, and AI. He called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a brutal war in blatant violation of the (UN) Charter.”

He deliberately spent a while on Gaza. He said Israel's campaign following Hamas's October 7 attack was "an onslaught on Palestinians" unlike anything he'd witnessed in his tenure. He said that the world must not “lose sight of the devastating situation in Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territories”. He warned that the two-state solution was “disappearing before our eyes”.

“It is nearly three years since the abhorrent terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October. But what followed was an onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza with a scale of killing and destruction unlike anything I have witnessed in my years as secretary-general.”

On the West Bank, he went further than before, saying settlement expansion and displacement were "bulldozing the path to peace" and raising the "spectre of ethnic cleansing."

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“Violence, displacement, and settlement expansion by Israel in the occupied West Bank are bulldozing the path to peace and raising the spectre of ethnic cleansing”, the outgoing UN secretary-general said. Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon fired back on X, calling it “anti-Israel propaganda under the UN banner.”

Brazil's Lula da Silva, who traditionally opens the debate, accused Netanyahu's government of "genocide" in Gaza and defended UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese against persecution, while also condemning Hamas's "radicalism" on October 7.

He said that generations of Palestinians “will carry the pain and trauma left by the genocide of women and children perpetrated by Netanyahu’s government in Gaza”. He also condemned the illegal settlements in the West Bank as “making the two-state solution increasingly unviable, essential for Israelis and Palestinians to live in safety”.He broadened into a critique of declining UN credibility and US militarisation of the Strait of Hormuz.

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Trump followed, with an unhinged rant which spanned from Cuba to Iran, to his midterm elections. He did spend quite a bit of breath on Iran, describing its missile and drone stockpiles and floating the choice between a deal or "annihilating" the regime, while claiming credit for the Gaza peace plan and Board of Peace, and asserting he'd ended eight wars.

Jordan's King Abdullah II delivered pointed remarks, highlighting the faliure or Trump's so-called “ceasefire” in Gaza. He said that at least 300 Palestinian children were killed in the first 300 days of the Gaza ceasefire, with field hospitals also targeted. He argued Gaza and West Bank annexation were "two fronts of the same Israeli strategy," warning Israeli expansionism now threatens the wider region, including near Jordan's border.

“What exactly is (international) law worth, and how can we enforce it if we won’t even call out its violations?” he asked the UNGA.

He called the world's political inaction on Israel “a choice”. “Every new Israeli violation was treated as temporary…Until temporary became permanent, and permanent became policy,” he added. He argued that squeezing Palestinians into a third of Gaza can not “be dismissed as temporary military measures or a consequence of war”.

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Turkey's Erdoğan, in his 16th UN appearance, lamented the absence of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the second time, who was unable to travel to New York for the UN assembly because the US rejected his visa application. He accused Israel of a "genocidal mindset" and called Gaza an “inhumane concentration camp”, prompting Israel's delegation to walk out mid-speech.

“The people of Gaza are still searching for their loved ones under the rubble,” Erdogan said. “They are recovering the bodies of their spouses, their children, or their parents.”

Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani also termed the crisis in Gaza a “Genocide in every sense of the word”. “There can be no talk of a just international order as long as Palestine remains a blind spot within it.” He added, “Future generations will be astonished by the enormous gap between the scale of the catastrophe and the level of international response to stop it.”
The confrontation is expected to peak Thursday, when Netanyahu addresses the Assembly to defend both the Gaza campaign and the Iran war, with multiple protests already planned outside UN headquarters.