In a dramatic and controversial move, Israel announced that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivering his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Israeli military seized control of telephones belonging to Gaza residents and Hamas members. The live broadcast of his speech was reportedly transmitted directly through those phones.
According to Israel’s official statement posted on X, Netanyahu used the unusual tactic to address Gazans directly, warning that the war could end immediately if Hamas returned hostages, disarmed, and agreed to demilitarize the Strip. “Whoever does so will live, while those who do not will be hunted,” he declared.
But the Prime Minister’s words came against a backdrop of global discontent. Earlier in the day, several delegates dramatically walked out of the UNGA hall in protest as Netanyahu took the podium. The Israeli leader currently faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over alleged war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
The boycott highlighted widening divisions in the international community over Israel’s nearly year-long war in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ October 2023 attacks that killed over 1,200 people in southern Israel.
Since then, Gaza’s health ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed amid relentless airstrikes and ground operations. Entire neighbourhoods, hospitals, and schools have been reduced to rubble. Humanitarian agencies warn of looming famine, mass displacement, and catastrophic suffering among Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
Netanyahu, however, remains defiant, framing Israel’s offensive as an existential fight to “eradicate Hamas” and secure Israel’s survival. Critics argue that his government’s tactics amount to collective punishment of civilians and risk deepening global isolation.
