Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a pager during his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, invoking the 2024 attacks on Hezbollah’s communications network as he defended Israel’s military campaigns across the Middle East.

“Remember the beepers? Well, I can tell you this, Hezbollah certainly remembers them,” Netanyahu said, referring to the coordinated explosions that struck pagers used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon in September 2024.

He said Israel had “pummeled Hezbollah” and claimed that most of the group’s arsenal of 150,000 ballistic missiles and rockets had been destroyed, while its senior leaders had been killed.

Netanyahu’s speech was marked by a large diplomatic walkout. Dozens of delegates left the General Assembly hall as he took the podium, while supporters in the gallery chanted in Hebrew, “Am Yisrael Chai,” meaning “The people of Israel live.” Reuters reported that delegates from around 50 countries were among those who walked out.

Netanyahu called those who left “moral cowards” and said Israel was defending not only itself but also countries whose representatives had walked out.

“In defending itself, Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates have left this hall,” he said, claiming that some of their leaders had privately thanked Israel for its military action against Iran.

Netanyahu describes seven-front war

Netanyahu portrayed Israel’s conflicts since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack as a seven-front war, naming Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

“We have no other country. We will continue to defend our state, and we will continue to win, because we have no other choice,” he said.

He linked that message to the history of Israel’s wars and to the experience of his brother, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, who was killed in 1976 while leading the operation to rescue hostages from a hijacked plane in Entebbe, Uganda.

Netanyahu recalled returning to Israel from high school in Philadelphia shortly before the 1967 Six-Day War and finding his brother, then a 21-year-old paratrooper, preparing for battle.

When Netanyahu asked what would happen, he said his brother replied: “We’re going to win. We have no other choice.”

Netanyahu said those words remained relevant to Israel today.

He described the Oct. 7 attack as “the darkest day in Israel’s history” and said Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis. He also accused Hamas of carrying out killings and sexual violence during the attack.

Israel subsequently launched a military campaign in Gaza that has drawn widespread international criticism and allegations of serious violations of international law, which Israel rejects.

Defense of Iran strikes

Iran was another central theme of Netanyahu’s speech.

He said Israel had fulfilled its longstanding objective of preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons and described the decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities as difficult militarily but straightforward politically.

“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard. It was very hard to do,” he said. “But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as Prime Minister.”

Netanyahu said Israel and the United States had worked together to strike Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure and praised U.S. President Donald Trump as Israel’s strongest partner in the conflict.

“Israel and America acted together not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization,” he said.

Trump was mentioned only once at length compared with Netanyahu’s extensive references to Iran, Gaza, Hezbollah and Israel’s other adversaries.

Netanyahu also held up a Starlink satellite communications device, saying he would leave it with the president of the General Assembly for Iran’s delegation.

He argued that greater access to uncensored communications would help Iranians bypass government restrictions and eventually challenge the authorities in Tehran.

“The Iranian people will be free,” Netanyahu said, predicting that the Iranian government would eventually be toppled by what he called its “lies, corruption” and “cruelty.”

He also questioned why protesters had not demonstrated against the Iranian government over its treatment of its own population.

‘War for truth’

Netanyahu described what he called an “eighth front” — the “war for truth” — being fought in traditional and social media.

He accused several countries of spending billions of dollars to spread what he described as false narratives about Israel.

Qatar was singled out in particular. Netanyahu accused Doha of spending billions over the years on U.S. universities and media organizations, including Al Jazeera, in an effort to influence young people against Israel, the United States and the West.

He also accused Qatar of hosting Hamas leaders.

Qatar has played a central role in negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the release of hostages and ceasefire arrangements. Doha has rejected Netanyahu’s accusations, with its foreign ministry saying his attacks were aimed at diverting attention from responsibility for policies on the ground.

Netanyahu also sharply criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling him a “tyrant” and accusing him of hosting Hamas leaders, killing Kurdish civilians, denying the Armenian genocide, imprisoning journalists and opposition figures, and occupying northern Cyprus.

“He calls for Israel’s destruction every day. He says he will be the ruler of Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said. “No, sir, you won’t. It is our city.”

Erdogan’s communications director rejected Netanyahu’s accusations as baseless, saying they could not obscure the humanitarian situation in Gaza or legal proceedings involving Israel.

Golan Heights and Gaza

Netanyahu also responded to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s characterization of the Golan Heights as Syrian territory under Israeli occupation.

“Jews have been on the slopes of the Golan Heights since the days of Moses,” Netanyahu said.

He strongly rejected accusations that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

“Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” he said, adding that those making the accusation were distorting facts and “inverting victim and aggressor.”

Netanyahu argued that Israel had taken extensive measures to warn Palestinian civilians before military operations, including millions of text messages and phone calls and the distribution of leaflets.

He also pointed to the delivery of food and polio vaccines to Gaza as evidence supporting Israel’s position.

“Is this genocide? Of course not,” Netanyahu said. “It’s the opposite of genocide.”

He cited Col. John Spencer, head of urban warfare studies at West Point, as having concluded that Israel had done more to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in history.

Clash with New York mayor

Netanyahu also used the speech to attack New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called Netanyahu a war criminal and accused him of overseeing genocide against Palestinians.

Netanyahu was making his first visit to New York since Mamdani took office in January.

“You tried to stop me from coming here. You tried. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” Netanyahu said.

He accused Mamdani of supporting Hamas, an allegation the mayor has denied, and said his rhetoric had contributed to an environment in which Jewish New Yorkers no longer felt safe.

Mamdani rejected Netanyahu’s claims, saying the prime minister was repeating what he described as falsehoods designed to obscure Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Mamdani also pointed to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu, which alleges war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Criticism of Western governments

Netanyahu also criticized Western European governments over their policies toward Israel and accused some leaders of yielding to pressure from anti-Israel protesters.

“The leaders of these countries have chosen to succumb to the antisemitic mobs. They’ve chosen weakness. They’ve chosen appeasement,” he said.

He also sought to downplay the scale of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, describing those responsible as a small number of young people.

At the same time, he said he opposed vigilantism.

“I can’t stand that. I won’t stand for vigilantism. We’re a country of law,” Netanyahu said.

He cited attacks against Israelis, including the killing of French citizen Nathaniel Shukrun, whom Netanyahu said was shot while visiting a spring with his 16-year-old son.

He also referred to reserve soldier Neria Leiter, whom he said was fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital after a Palestinian ramming attack.

Political backdrop and protests

Netanyahu’s roughly 40-minute speech came less than five weeks before Israel’s Oct. 27 election and was broadcast live during prime time on Israel’s main television channels.

Before the address, Netanyahu’s government had paid for 500 pro-Israel and anti-Iran billboards and dozens of trucks carrying pro-Israel messages across Manhattan, according to his office.

Several hundred protesters also gathered near the United Nations. Some blocked traffic and chanted slogans including “Stop arming Israel, let Gaza live” and “Stop arming Israel, let Iran live.” Police detained some demonstrators.

Netanyahu made a short visit to the United States for the U.N. address and had no planned meeting with Trump during the trip.

Despite that, he praised the U.S. president repeatedly.

“We will continue to defend our state. We will continue to win because we have no other choice,” Netanyahu said.

He said Trump had been Israel’s strongest partner in the conflict and thanked him for what he described as his “bold leadership.”

The speech came as Israel faces growing diplomatic criticism over the Gaza war. Britain, France and Canada have recently imposed sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing a muted response from Washington.

Netanyahu also faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, limiting his ability to travel to a number of countries.

He ended his address by returning to the theme that had run throughout his speech: Israel’s determination to defend itself.

“The days when Jews were defenseless victims marched to the slaughter, those days are over,” Netanyahu said. “Today, we have a state. Today, we have an army. Today, we have a people ready and willing to defend ourselves.”

“If we muster our courage, if we steel our resolve, we will continue to win,” he said. “As the Bible says, the eternity of Israel will not falter.”

“And the reason is simple,” he added. “We have no other choice.”