Israel-Lebanon live: Netanyahu tells UN Israel will fight for total victory over Hezbollah and Hamas

Israel will press on with discussions on ceasefire proposals for Lebanon in the days ahead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, but after an intense week of fighting the two sides kept up cross-border fire, killing at least 25 in Lebanon.

Israel’s foreign minister on Thursday rejected global calls for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and continued airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and heightened fears of a regional war.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said the death toll in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since the early hours of Friday was 25. One attack killed nine members of a family, including four children, in the border town of Shebaa, mayor Mohammad Saab told Reuters.

More than 700 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since Monday, according to a tally of official tolls.

Cheers were heard through the duration of Netanyahu’s speech but cameras may not have shown the flurry of diplomats leaving the hall in protest, Sky News has said.

International affairs editor Dominic Waghorn witnessed “lots of diplomats” head for the exit during the Israeli prime minister’s speech and videos on X show similar scenes too.

His leadership strained by conflicts on two fronts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told world leaders at the United Nations on Friday that his nation will “continue degrading Hezbollah” until it achieves its goals along the Lebanon border, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire to halt the spiral into an all-out regional war.

He said his government would no longer tolerate daily rocket fire from the area. “Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that’s exactly what we’re doing ... we’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met,” Netanyahu said. “Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns ... How long would the American government tolerate that?” he said, shaking his fist in emphasis. “Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, I’ve come here today to say: Enough is enough.”

He said Israeli forces have destroyed “90%” of Hamas’ rockets and killed or captured half of its forces.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just concluded his speech at the United Nations in New York, however we will recap and continue to bring you more of the top lines from his 30 minute speech.

Netanyahu has accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor of “pure antisemitism.”

Addressing a bid for an arrest warrant to be issued for him by the ICC, he told UN: “Now, given the antisemitism at the UN, it should surprise no one that the prosecutor of the ICC, one of the UN’s affiliated organs, is considering issuing arrest warrants against me and Israel’s defence minister.

“The democratically elected leader, leaders of the democratic state of Israel - the ICC prosecutors rush to judgement. His refusal to treat Israel, with its independent courts, the way other democracies are treated is hard to explain by anything other than pure antisemitism.”

Netanyahu turned to addressing the escalating conflict with Hezbollah.

He said: “We will not accept a terror army parked on our northern border...able to perpetrate another Oct 7-style massacre. We will continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met.”

He went on to say that Israel is not at war with Lebanon but with Hezbollah and that the group is “the quintessential terror organisation in the world today,”

Netanyahu has compared Hamas to the Nazis and said it would be “inconceivable” for Israel to allow Hamas to remain a part of Gaza when the war is over.

He said: “Imagine in a post-war situation in the Second World War, imagine allowing the defeated Nazis in 1945 to rebuild Germany. It’s inconceivable. It’s ridiculous. It didn’t happen then, and it’s not going to happen now. We don’t seek to resettle Gaza.”

Netanyahu has claimed that his army has defeated all but one of “Hamas’ terror battalions.”

He said the army’s focus is now on defeating Hamas’ remaining fighting capability and they are doing so by “taking out senior terrorist commanders and destroying remaining terrorist infrastructure.”

But, he says, the main goal remains focused on their “sacred mission” of bringing “our hostages home.”

The Israeli prime minister said 154 hostages have returned, 117 of those are alive.

He said: “We will not stop until that mission is complete.”

Israel is seeking peace despite fighting for its life in the face of “savage enemies” who want its annihilation, Netanyahu has said.

He continued: “My country is at war, fighting for its life. We must defend ourselves against these savage murderers. Our enemies seek not only to destroy us, they seek to destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror.”

Netanyahu has called on the UN Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Iran to ensure it doesn’t get nuclear weapons.