Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said that Israel is seeking peace despite fighting for its life. “My country is at war, fighting for its life,” stressed Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly.
Netanyahu said he did not plan to come to the UN as his country is at war. "I decided to come to UN to set the record straight."
Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Tel Aviv has been fighting with the aim to 'destroy' the Hamas group. Tensions in the Middle East intensified sine the Israel-Hamas war. Netanyahu said that if Hamas stays in power in Gaza, it will regroup, rearm and attack Israel again.
"We must defend ourselves against these savage murderers. Our enemies seek not only to destroy us, they seek to destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,” he added.
Amid the rising tensions in the Middle East, Netanyahu added that there is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach. “It’s true of the entire Middle East,” he added.
While calling for an end to the “appeasement” of Iran, Netanyahu said Israel is winning the war. Earlier, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had vowed 'harsh punishment' for Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas's senior leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Netanyahu called on the UN Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Iran to ensure it does not get nuclear weapons. “Israel will do everything in its power to make sure Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons,” he said.
Amid the ongoing Gaza war, Netanyahu said the Israel military has killed or captured more than half of Hamas' 40,000 fighters and destroyed 90 per cent of Hamas rockets.
While addressing the world leaders at the UN, Netanyahu said Israel will continue to 'degrade' Hezbollah until it achieves its goals along the Lebanon border.
"Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns ... How long would the American government tolerate that?" he said, shaking his fist in emphasis. Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, I've come here today to say: Enough is enough," said Netanyahu.
Since the Israel-Hamas war, tensions along the cross-borders with Lebanon also increased with Tel Aviv and Hezbollah exchanging strikes almost every day.