Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, a day after both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke forcefully against some of his ambitions.
In a speech that was livestreamed because the Trump administration denied him a visa to enter the United States, Abbas said, “Palestine is ours,” rejecting efforts by the Israeli government to have Gaza Palestinians leave the territory where Israel has been fighting Hamas for nearly two years. Abbas also rejected Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and said it would have no part in running a Palestinian state helmed by the Palestinian authority.
Later, speaking to reporters, Trump said he would not permit Israel to annex parts of the West Bank, a long-threatened move it was reportedly considering as a direct response to the wave of Palestinian statehood recognitions taking place at the U.N. this week. “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen,” he said, confirming a message he had reportedly delivered to the leaders of Arab states in a sideline meeting.
Now, Netanyahu will have his annual turn to address the assembled nations, many of which firmly oppose his leadership and have been sharply critical of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza induced by the war. He has vowed to strike a defiant tone as he has in recent weeks, broadcasting that he has accepted that Israel may be politically and economically isolated as it presses on with the war in Gaza.
“At the UN General Assembly, I will speak our truth — the truth about the citizens of Israel, the truth about our IDF soldiers and the truth about our country,” Netanyahu said in comments recorded at Ben-Gurion Airport on Thursday as he boarded his flight to New York. “I will denounce those leaders who, instead of denouncing the murderers, rapists and child burners, want to give them a state in the heart of the Land of Israel. This will not happen.”
Netanyahu’s plane avoided French airspace on his way from Tel Aviv to New York, taking an unusual route that drew speculation of an effort to avoid landing in a country that is spearheading the European push for Palestinian statehood recognition — and that is party to the pact that created the International Criminal Court, which has a warrant out for Netanyahu’s arrest over Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office said it had ordered his speech to be broadcast into Gaza, in hopes that it could reach some of the Israeli hostages still held there. Hamas holds 48 hostages, of which as many as 20 are thought to remain alive. The group released a video showing one of the hostages, Alon Ohel, this week.
Sources told Israeli media that while Netanyahu’s office said the loudspeakers broadcasting the speech would be placed inside Israeli territory, troops were in fact being asked to set up speakers well within Gaza. One senior military source told Haaretz that the plan was “a crazy idea” with no clear military purpose.
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