Walkouts Before Netanyahu UN Speech Show Israel 'Isolation'

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Hamas said a mass walkout of delegations before Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN Friday showed Israel's "isolation" as a result of the Gaza war.
"Boycotting Netanyahu's speech is one manifestation of Israel's isolation and the consequences of the war of extermination," Taher al-Nunu, the media adviser to the head of Hamas's political bureau, said in a statement.
As the Israeli PM walked up to the General Assembly rostrum, a number of delegations walked out - in a deliberate protest as the Israeli premier was the day's first speaker.
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, said Netanyahu had been left with "nothing but a chorus of cheerleaders who entered the UN hall only to clap in support of genocide".
In a statement, Hamas accused Netanyahu of repeating "lies and blatant denial of the genocide, forced displacement and systematic starvation committed by him" and the Israeli military in Gaza.
"If he truly cared for his captives, he would end the brutal bombing, massacres and destruction of Gaza, but instead, he lies and continues to endanger their lives," the group said, referring to the hostages held by Hamas fighters.
During his angry UN address, Netanyahu vowed to block a Palestinian state, accusing European leaders who recently recognised one of rewarding Hamas.
Hamas said that the boycott of Netanyahu's speech showed the "growing global solidarity with the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state".
A Palestinian foreign ministry official slammed Netanyahu's speech at the UN, saying it was "saturated with lies and falsifications".
"It was the speech of a defeated man, a desperate leader who once again tried to rally a West that has increasingly distanced itself from a genocidal state, using fear as his only argument," the director of the ministry's European affairs department, Adel Atieh, told AFP.
"This speech showed neither vision nor perspective: it only reflected growing isolation, a headlong rush forward and the anxiety of a power that knows it stands on the wrong side of history," he added.
Israel's offensive has killed at least 65,549 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable.
Meanwhile, the main Israeli group representing the families of hostages decried Netanyahu's call at the UN Friday to "finish the job" in Gaza, saying it endangered the remaining captives.
"Every day of continued war puts the living hostages at greater risk...," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
"Time and again, (Netanyahu) has chosen to squander every opportunity to bring them home."
US President Donald Trump said he thought he had sealed a deal on a ceasefire after nearly two years of war Benjamin Netanyahu UNGA Netanyahu walkout

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