Netanyahu defends military campaigns at UN General Assembly as 77 delegations stage walkout

Walkout and address at the General Assembly

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the 81st general debate of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2026. Approximately 77 national delegations exited the hall as he approached the podium, accompanied by jeers from delegates and chants from crowds outside demanding Palestinian statehood. Outside the headquarters, police detained multiple demonstrators carrying protest signs, including actor Susan Sarandon. Facing a difficult domestic re-election campaign ahead of national voting on 27 October 2026, Netanyahu addressed the departing diplomats directly before beginning his defense of Israeli operations.

“If there are any moral cowards left who have not left this hall, please do so now.”

Defense of military actions

Netanyahu defended Israeli combat actions, stating that soldiers had fought continuously across seven fronts, including Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, since the 7 October 2023 attacks. He compared the casualty toll of the 2023 attacks to the 11 September 2001 attacks multiplied sixteen times, describing it as the deadliest assault on Jewish people since the Holocaust. Holding up a communication pager, he referenced the September 2024 covert operation in Lebanon that killed nine people and injured approximately 3,000 members of Hezbollah. He described Israel's June 2025 airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as an essential move for survival, before rejecting genocide allegations by citing the entry of two tons of food and the distribution of vaccines in Gaza.

“Be ashamed for distorting facts, for inverting victim and aggressor, for spitting on the truth.”

Disputes with regional rivals and Western allies

The speech included direct rebukes of foreign leaders, municipal officials, and traditional allies. Netanyahu called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a tyrant, accusing Turkey of jailing opposition politicians, denying the Armenian genocide, occupying northern Cyprus, violating Greek rights, and seeking control over Jerusalem. He responded to Syrian interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who had asserted Damascus's sovereignty over the Golan Heights at the assembly on 23 September 2026, by citing biblical passages to argue for Israeli control. Netanyahu criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who previously explored enforcing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him, accused Qatar of funding campaigns to turn youth against Israel, and reproached the United Kingdom and France for restricting West Bank goods, while praising United States President Donald Trump for his strategic alignment with Israel.

Responses from Ankara and Ramallah

Responses from Turkish and Palestinian officials followed the assembly session. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who could not attend the gathering in New York after the Trump administration denied his entry visa, addressed delegates via a pre-recorded broadcast.

“We reject these illegal punitive measures, as well as the accusations and justifications on which they are based.”

On 25 September 2026, Turkish Communications Director Burhanettin Duran rejected Netanyahu's claims via the Anadolu news agency, calling them unfounded allegations meant to deflect from the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and international legal cases. Duran and Syrian officials also reiterated their denials regarding Israeli allegations that Turkey attempted to station troops at an Idlib military airbase in northwestern Syria prior to Israeli airstrikes there on 19 August 2026.