During the speech, he cited the presence of families of hostages seized by Hamas on Oct 7. The war began when Hamas gunmen stormed Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military has leveled swaths of the besieged Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned the speech.
“Netanyahu’s speech is full of lies and contradictions, and the withdrawal of many delegations from the hall is a message that Netanyahu’s lies are no longer believed by anyone,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
“Netanyahu’s call for Hamas to surrender is nonsense; surrender is not in the movement’s vocabulary, and the problem lies in the existence of the occupation, not with those who are defending themselves,” Abu Zuhri said.
The two General Assembly speakers before Netanyahu thumped the lectern as they spoke. Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob demanded: “Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now.” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said: “We must act now and demand an immediate end to this bloodshed.”
