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

Netanyahu has said his army was forced to defend itself “on six more fronts, organised by Iran” after the initial attack by Hamas inside Israel on 7 October.

He lists others who have attacked Israel including the Yemeni Houthis and says that last April, Iran directly attacked Israel from its own territory.

He said he had a message for the “tyrants of Tehran”, saying there is “no place in the Middle East” that “the long arms of Israel” cannot reach.

Netanyahu then declared: “We are winning!”

The Israeli prime minster said he decided to attend and speak at the UN after he heard “lies and slander” levelled against Israel by “speakers at this podium”.

He did not provide further details on which speakers he was referring to or what they said.

Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not intend to attend this year’s general assembly but he “decided to come and set the record straight.”

He went on to say that Israel “yearns for peace” and “will make peace again” but added that it must defend itself against “savage” enemies.

Benjamin Netanyahu is at the lecturn at the UN General Assembly in New York.

He was met with some cheers and jeers from those inside in the chamber as he walked up.

British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer did not meet with his Israeli counterpart during the sidelines of a world leaders’ summit in New York, despite hopes for talks from the UK side, according to Sky News.

A source familiar with the trip mentioned that scheduling conflicts between Sir Keir Starmer and Benjamin Netanyahu prevented the meeting.

Additionally, a meeting between the prime minister and Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was called off after the Israeli official postponed his trip to the United Nations General Assembly by a day.

The Jewish Chronicle newspaper also reported that the two leaders did not meet despite both being in New York at the same time.

It quoted Downing Street sources as insisting this was not a snub and that the government is “in touch with the Israelis all the time”.

The lack of discussions between the British and Israeli leaders occurred as Israel intensified its military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The American embassay in Beirut has issued a short statement on X to say it has no current plans to evacuate its citizens.

An Israeli security official said he expects a possible war against Hezbollah would not last for as long as the current war in Gaza because the Israeli military’s goals are much narrower. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military briefing guidelines, told The Associated Press that the goal in Lebanon is just to push Hezbollah away from the border with Israel, which is “not a high bar like Gaza.” The official said that no decision has been made on whether Israel will carry out a ground operation in southern Lebanon. But he stressed that the military is training for this possibility every day and is ready to implement it.

A British mother and her young family in Lebanon are “on edge” as they face a five-day wait for a flight back to the UK amid daily explosions.

Victoria Lupton, 37, who divides her time between Achrafieh in Beirut and Cambridge, arrived in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday September 17, on the same day a wave of blasts hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.

Ms Lupton told the PA news agency she was in her apartment with her British-Lebanese husband protecting their two-year-old daughter - whom she does not wish to name - after they heard blasts in their area on Monday as a result of the growing violence between Israel and Hezbollah.

“I was trying to protect my two-year-old from the noise of that,” she said.

“Since then, we regularly hear distant rumblings of explosions and all of us are really on edge - even when a door slams, we’re jumping up. Last weekend, there was a thunderstorm, and there were rumbles of thunder happening, and I was with a group of people, and everyone thought that that was either a sonic boom or a rocket. We were all very uneasy looking at each other.”

Ms Lupton who is founder and chief executive of Seenaryo, a non-profit which helps educate Middle Eastern women and children through theatre and play, said there is a "shared experience" among British nationals in Lebanon in "constantly discussing when to stay and when to go" from the country.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Friday they had targeted Israel’s cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon with a ballistic missile and a drone in support of Gaza and Lebanon.

The Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile that was fired from Yemen after sirens and explosions were heard early in the day.

The Houthi‘s military spokesperson said their operations won’t halt in the coming days until Israel’s offensives in Gaza and Lebanon stop.

“We will carry out more military operations against the Israeli enemy in victory for the blood of our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon,” Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech.

The Israeli army will continue to hit Lebanon “very hard”, defence minister Yoav Gallant has said.

He made the comments during a visit to Safed in northern Israel, saying the strikes would continue until security was returned to the north, The Times of Israel has reported.

These remarks are about the 60,000 people who have been evacuated from northern Israel because of near-daily attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.

Mr Gallant said: “We are hitting Hezbollah very hard over the past year and in particular over the past few weeks. We will continue and increase this effort — we plan to bring security to the town in the north and to safely return home those who evacuated.”