New York: In a reminder of how his country targeted Hezbollah in Lebanon in September 2024, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a pager during his address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday.
“Israel struck Hamas, we struck Hezbollah. Remember the beepers?” Netanyahu said, displaying the device before the audience.
“You remember the beepers? Remember these things? Remember them? Well, I can tell you this Hezbollah certainly remembers them. Guess what happened to the bulk of the vast arsenal of 150,000 ballistic missiles and rockets? All aimed at our civilians. They’re gone,” The Israeli PM said.
He was referring to the September 17, 2024, explosions in which thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated across Lebanon and parts of Syria. The blasts killed 12 people and wounded almost 3,000, the BBC reported at that time.
While Hezbollah blamed Israel for the operation, Tel Aviv has remained silent until November 2024, when Netanyahu reportedly admitted for the first time that Israel was behind the attack. Reports said the devices had apparently been compromised before reaching Hezbollah members.
The explosions caused casualties not only among Hezbollah members but their families and others. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured, Iranian media had said that his injuries were minor.
Netanyahu’s defiant stand at the UNGA comes at a time when he faces a closely fought election back home on October 27.
He went on to describe Israel’s broader conflict as a “seven-front war”, naming Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq and Syria and Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
“In the last three years, our heroic soldiers have fought a war on seven fronts. Do you know of any other country the size of New Jersey that can fight for three years on seven fronts?” Netanyahu said, as reported by Hindustan Times.
“They organized to erase us from the face of the Earth. Instead of collapsing, we delivered devastating blows to all of them with our great American friends and crushed the Iranian army and its nuclear facilities,” he said.
On attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, he said: “It was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”
Netanyahu’s address drew a sharp reaction inside the UNGA hall, with dozens of delegates walking out. Some delegates jeered and booed, while members of the Israeli delegation applauded, AFP reported.
The Israeli leader continued and said, “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left this hall, please do so now”.
He also accused Turkey of backing Hamas and called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “tyrant”. Turkey’s presidential communications director Burhanettin Duran dismissed the remarks as “baseless accusations” that were “incompatible” with UN ideals, according to Ankara-base news outlet Anadolu.
Netanyahu also referred to the Iranian government as a “murderous dictatorship”.
“I vowed to prevent Iran’s murderous dictatorship from developing atomic bombs, nuclear weapons aimed at destroying Israel, nuclear weapons that could threaten the entire world,” he said.
The fall of Iran’s leadership was not “far”, he said, pointing to the Iranian delegation’s vacant desk, where a portrait of slain Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani had been displayed.