AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Hamas says Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threats at the UN General Assembly to continue aggression against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon represent a clear threat to international peace and security.
“Netanyahu continued his series of blatant lies and escalated his threats against the peoples of the region in his speech, while expanding his circle of crimes to include our people in Lebanon,” the Palestinian resistance group said in a statement.
“Netanyahu should have been arrested and held accountable as a war criminal. The doors of the United Nations should not open to a criminal terrorist, who threatens regional and international peace and security,” the statement noted.
Netanyahu’s speech, Hamas said, represents “a clear threat to international peace and security by affirming his determination to expand aggression against the peoples of the region and continue his brutal crimes, based on a criminal US policy that provides political and military cover for such crimes”.
Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
“This war can come to an end now. All that has to happen is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its arms and release all the hostages,” Netanyahu said.
“But if they don’t – if they don’t – we will fight until we achieve total victory. Total victory. There is no substitute for it.”
He also threatened more attacks against Lebanon, which began last week with exploding pagers, and this week, expanded to airstrikes that have killed more than 750 people and displaced at least 90,000.
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon has warned that the country is facing bloodshed not seen in decades and that the crisis could deteriorate even further.
“The recent escalations in Lebanon are nothing short of catastrophic,” Imran Riza said. “We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning.”
On Friday, Israeli warplanes struck at least six residential structures in Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s densely populated southern suburb of Dahiyeh, killing at least eight people and wounding some 80 others.
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