Netanyahu expected to denounce enemies, allies at UN

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a difficult reelection campaign at home, addresses the UN where he is expected to lash out at both enemies and allies that have crossed him in recent months.

Mr Netanyahu will also likely raise the case of Israeli ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter whose son, a soldier, was badly injured in an alleged Palestinian ramming attack in the occupied West Bank.

Foremost among Mr Netanyahu's critics in New York is the city's leftist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who recently vowed to execute an ICC arrest warrant when the visiting leader arrived in the city for the UN's signature gathering.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) said in 2024 it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Netanyahu was responsible for war crimes in his Gaza campaign that responded to Hamas' deadly 7 October, 2023 attacks.

Mr Netanyahu denies the ICC claims.

However, Mr Mamdani later conceded he did not have the authority for such a maneuver, leading to howls of indignation from Netanyahu and his backers.

Ahead of his turn at the UN's signature diplomatic week, Mr Netanyahu said he was going to "tell the truth about you," addressing Mr Mamdani and accusing him of "supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters".

He also baselessly accused Mr Mamdani of "inciting riots against New York Jews".

Mr Mamdani, who has long supported Palestinian rights and accused Israel of war crimes, fired back and said "we all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true."

One of Mr Netanyahu's fiercest critics, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, will not be in the room after Washington denied him a visa to attend the General Assembly.

"We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based," he said in a video clip ahead of Mr Netanyahu's intervention.

Allies of Israel, Britain and France, will also likely be in Mr Netanyahu's firing line.

Britain has imposed limited sanctions on Israeli exports from the occupied West Bank, a move France recently followed on.

French President Emmanuel Macron drew Israel's ire for claiming Hamas was not active in the West Bank. Hamas' stronghold has traditionally been Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu's office attacked "the gross absurdity of the claim," adding Hamas attacks "Jews almost every day."

"They have murdered countless Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria," it added, using the Biblical name for the West Bank, which Israel seized in 1967.

Mr Netanyahu already had poor relations with Mr Macron, who led a push by Western nations at last year's UN General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state.

Irish delegation member present for Netanyahu UN speech - McEntee

A member of the Irish delegation will be present for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech later today at the UN General Assembly, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Last year, representatives from dozens of countries walked out as Mr Netanyahu approached the podium to deliver his address.

Helen McEntee told reporters that Ireland has had somebody in the seat for every national address since the beginning of the week and that she expected "that will probably continue".

"There won't be any ministers present. To be clear about that" she said.

"There are many things that have been said that we don't agree with. There are many things that we do not support. The decision was taken that we would have somebody in that seat for every single speech" she added.

"I think it's important that, particularly where we disagree vehemently with countries and we very clearly oppose the actions of the Israeli government, that we clearly understand exactly what they're saying as well, and I think that's important too," Ms McEntee added.

Ferocious criticism of UN

Iran, which Israel and the United States have been at war with since launching attacks in February, will almost certainly feature in Mr Netanyahu's speech.

Israel is insisting Washington take more comprehensive military action in Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

However, the war is unpopular with the US public, and gas prices have surged in its wake.

Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Dannon said after Iran's president spoke yesterday that Tehran "arms Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, and militias in Iraq".

He called it a "regime that murders its own citizens when they dare to protest against it".

Mr Netanyahu will almost certainly criticize the United Nations and its outgoing leader Antonio Guterres of whom he has been a persistent critic, even more so since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Mr Netanyahu's government has repeatedly accused a UN agency of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of its employees took part in the group's attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, Israel has continued its airstrikes and restricted entry of equipment that international groups say is required for the territory's reconstruction to begin.

Israelis go to the polls on 27 October.