Isareli PM Netanyahu begins speech at UNGA, dozens of delegates walk out: Video

Over 100 delegates from multiple nations reportedly walked out of the UN General Assembly hall en masse on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his speech.

According to the Washington Post, more than a 100 diplomats from more than 50 countries staged a mass walkout as Netanyahu entered the United Nations General Assembly hall.

A video shared by news agency PTI showed representatives of several countries staging a walkout as Netanyahu took to the podium to deliver a speech at UNGA.

What did Netanyahu say at UNGA?

In a defiant speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders on Friday that Israel “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.

“Western leaders may have buckled under the pressure," he said. “And I guarantee you one thing: Israel won’t,” Netanyahu said.

Responding to countries’ recent decisions to recognise Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu said. “Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere.”

In recent days, Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and others announced their recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

Netanyahu was preceded Thursday by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the General Assembly via video, since the US denied him a visa. He welcomed the announcements of recognition but said the world needs to do more to make statehood happen.

“The time has come for the international community to do right by the Palestinian people" and help them realize “their legitimate rights to be rid of the occupation and to not remain a hostage to the temperament of Israeli politics,” Mahmoud Abbas said.

Action against Netanyahu

The European Union is reportedly considering tariffs and sanctions on Israel. The assembly this month passed a nonbinding resolution urging Israel to commit to an independent Palestinian nation, which Netanyahu has said is a non-starter.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant accusing Netanyahu of crimes against humanity, which he denies. And the UN’s highest court is weighing South Africa's allegation that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, which it vehemently refutes.

Against that backdrop, Netanyahu sounded resolute Thursday as he boarded a plane in Israel to head for the UN’s annual meeting of top-level leaders in New York.

“I will tell our truth,” Netanyahu said. “I will condemn those leaders who, instead of condemning the murderers, rapists and burners of children, want to give them a state in the heart of Israel.”

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, then withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians want all three territories to form their envisioned state, part of a “two-state solution” that the international community has embraced for decades.

Netanyahu opposes it robustly, maintaining that creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas.

“This will not happen,” he said at the airport Thursday.