UN General Assembly: What did world leaders say about Israel’s war on Gaza?

Prime ministers, presidents, and other world leaders from around the world gathered in New York City this month for the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

War in Gaza was one of the issues that topped the agenda of speeches – here are some snippets.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as secretary-general. More than 200 of our own staff have been killed, many with their families.

Gaza is a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.

The international community must mobilise for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-state solution.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

In Gaza and the West Bank, we are witnessing one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent history, now spreading dangerously to Lebanon.

[Israel’s response in the wake of the Hamas attacks on October 7] has become a collective punishment for the entire Palestinian people.

There are more than 40,000 fatal victims, most of them women and children.

The right to defence has become the right to revenge, which prevents an agreement to release hostages and postpones the ceasefire.

US President Joe Biden

Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands killed, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowding into tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation.

As we look ahead we must also address the rise of violence against innocent Palestinians on the West Bank and set the conditions for a better future, including a two-state solution where the world where Israel enjoys security and peace and full recognition and normalised relations with all its neighbours, where Palestinians live in security, dignity, and self-determination in a state of their own.

I put forward with Qatar and Egypt a ceasefire and hostage deal. It’s been endorsed by the UN Security Council. Now is the time for the parties to finalise its terms, bring the hostages home, secure security for Israel, and Gaza free of Hamas’s grip, ease the suffering in Gaza, and end this war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

As a result of the Israeli attacks, Gaza has become the largest cemetery for children and women in the world: Over 17,000 children have been the targets of Israeli bullets and bombs.

In Gaza, not only are children dying, but also the United Nations system. The values the West claims to defend are dying, the truth is dying, and the hopes of humanity to live in a more just world are dying – one by one.

I am asking you bluntly here: Are those in Gaza and the occupied West Bank not human beings? Do children in Palestine have no rights?

Jordan’s King Abdullah II

It often feels that there was not a moment when our world was not in turmoil. And yes, I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this.

For nearly a year, the sky blue flag flying over UN shelters and schools in Gaza has been powerless to protect innocent civilians from Israeli bombardment. So it’s no surprise that both inside and outside this hall, trust in the UN’s cornerstone principles and ideals is crumbling.

The harsh reality many see is that some nations are above international law, that global justice does bend to the will of power, and that human rights are selective; a privilege to be granted or denied at will.

Colombia President Gustavo Petro

That richest 1 percent of humanity, the powerful global oligarchy, is the one that allows bombs to be dropped on the women, elderly, and children of Gaza, Lebanon, or Sudan.

The power of a country in the world is no longer exercised by the type of economic or political system it has or its ideology but power is wielded according to how much capacity one has to destroy humankind.

That is why we are not listened to when we vote to stop the genocide in Gaza. Even though we are the majority of the presidents of the world and represent the majority of humanity, we are not listened to by a minority of presidents who can stop the bombing.

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

Every year I stand on this podium and begin my speech by talking about the Palestinian cause, the absence of justice, the perils of believing that it can be neglected, and the illusions of making peace without a just solution.

The ongoing Israeli aggression for nearly a year is nothing but a result of the absence of a sincere political will, deliberate international failure to resolve the Palestinian issue with a just solution, and insistence of the occupying Israeli authorities to impose a fait accompli on the Palestinians and the world with all types of force.

… There is no Israeli partner for peace during the current government’s tenure, and no peace process taking place, but rather a genocide.

The end of the occupation and the Palestinian people exercising their right to self-determination is neither a favour nor a gift from anyone. Unfortunately, the Security Council has failed to implement its ceasefire resolution in the Gaza Strip and to refrain from granting the state of Palestine full membership status in the United Nations despite the General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution supporting Palestine’s request for UN membership last May.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

The violence the Palestinian people are being subjected to is a grim continuation of more than half a century of apartheid.

We South Africans know what apartheid looks like. We lived through it. We suffered and died under it. We will not remain silent and watch as apartheid is perpetrated against others.

In December last year, South Africa approached the International Court of Justice seeking an order to prevent Israel from committing genocide against the people of Gaza.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

Over the past year, the world has witnessed the true nature of the Israeli regime. It has witnessed how this regime carries out atrocities in Gaza; and in eleven months has murdered in cold blood over 41,000 innocent people—mostly women and children.

Its leaders label this genocide; the killing of children, war crimes, and state terrorism as “legitimate self-defence”.

They label the freedom-loving and brave people around the world who protest against their genocide as “anti-Semitic”. They label an oppressed people, who have stood up against seven decades of occupation and humiliation, as “terrorists”.

Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo

In the Middle East, decades of dehumanising the enemy has led to a vicious cycle of violence, resulting in the killing of over 40,000 people in less than a year.

Early on in the Gaza war, my government warned against lack of respect for international humanitarian laws on both sides, and the disproportionate attack with blatant disregard for Palestinian civilian life.

We’ve been calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire for many months, but today it seems more distant than ever. Hostilities need to stop before the whole region becomes engulfed in violence.

Action speaks louder than words. Belgium has imposed a weapons embargo. We never ceased our support to UNRWA and other humanitarian organisations.

French President Emmanuel Macron

Israel’s war in Gaza has gone on for too long. The tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian casualties cannot be justified or explained away. Too many innocent people have died and we mourn them, as well.

This war must, therefore, end and a ceasefire must be achieved as quickly as possible, along with the release of the hostages and a massive flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

It is absolutely crucial for a new phase to begin in Gaza, for the weapons to fall silent, for humanitarian workers to return, and for civilian populations to be protected.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Around the world, more fires are breaking out and burning with ever greater intensity. Exacting a terrible toll in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen, and beyond.

I call on Israel and Hezbollah: Stop the violence. Step back from the brink.

We need to see an immediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement, and we are working with all partners to that end. Because further escalation serves no one.

This is intimately linked with the situation in Gaza where, again, we need to see an immediate ceasefire. It shames us all that the suffering in Gaza continues to grow.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif

Can we, as human beings, remain silent while children lie buried, under the rubble of their shattered homes? Can we turn a blind eye to the mothers, cradling the lifeless bodies of their children? This is not just a conflict; this is systematic slaughter of innocent people; an assault on the very essence of human life and dignity.

The blood of Gaza’s children stains the hands of not just the oppressors,ِ butِ also of those who are complicit in prolonging this cruel conflict.ِ

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley

And let me be clear, we condemn the actions of Hamas on October 7, but we equally and strongly deplore the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which is the result of the disproportionate use of force by Israel.

There’s no justification for it and that is why treaties exist governing the rules of engagement for war.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi

The question of Palestine is the biggest wound to human conscience. As we speak, the conflict in Gaza is still going on, causing more civilian casualties with each passing day. Fighting has spread to Lebanon; might must not take the place of justice.

Palestine’s long-held aspiration to establish an independent state should not be shunned any more, and the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people should not be ignored any longer.

There must not be any delay in reaching a comprehensive ceasefire, and the fundamental way out lies in the two-state solution.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Pull quote: The murder of Palestinian civilians by US weapons must stop.

All those who are still capable of compassion resent the fact that the October tragedy is being used for a massive collective punishment of the Palestinians, which has turned out to be an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

The murder of Palestinian civilians by US weapons must stop.

The delivery of humanitarian cargoes to the enclave must be ensured, the restoration of infrastructure must be arranged and, most importantly, the implementation of the legitimate right of self-determination of the Palestinians must be guaranteed, and they must be allowed to establish a territorially integral and viable state within the borders of 1967 with its capital in East Jerusalem, not in words but in deeds, “on the ground”.

Indonesia Minister for Foreign Affairs Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday mentioned, and I quote, that “Israel seeks peace,” that “Israel yearns for peace”. Really? How are we supposed to believe that statement?

Yesterday, while he was here, Israel conducted unprecedented massive air attacks on Beirut. PM Netanyahu wants the war to continue … We must stop that.

We must pressure Israel to come back to a political solution for the two-state solution.

As I speak now more than 41,000 in Gaza have been killed, the situation in West Bank Lebanon is deteriorating.

Is that not enough? Will the Security Council only take action to stop Israel’s atrocities when all Palestinian are displaced? Or when 100,000 Palestinians are killed? Or when a regional armed conflict breaks out? That will be too late!

Malaysia Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohamad Hasan

Just months ago, the world witnessed Israel’s mockery, and utter disrespect of the United Nations in this very hall, with the insolent shredding of the UN Charter.

Israel’s actions, with each passing day, raise our doubts as to whether it actually believes in the UN system, or values its membership in this organisation.

Let there be no doubt: The question of Gaza is a direct test of the capability of the United Nations. Let this 76-year-old issue not age into a century of our failure to uphold justice. Let our dreams of a free Palestine live beyond today, and beyond the words that we say.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez

In Palestine, for almost a year now we’ve been witnessing an unconscionable spiral of death and devastation which is now, unfortunately, spreading to Lebanon.

This is an escalation of the conflict, which is woefully grave in nature.

Spain condemns in the strongest terms the death of innocent civilians once again and consequently, I wish to once again call for de-escalation, detente and diplomacy.

We must put an end to the conflict in Gaza and tackle the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that’s the only way that we’ll be able to successfully extinguish the hotbeds of tension that are jeopardising regional and global stability.

Everything we’re seeing daily in Gaza, and now unfortunately in Lebanon, is forcing us to think about the very validity of international humanitarian law just as we mark the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

The massacres, the crimes, the genocide that Israel has been perpetrating against our people since its inception in 1948 to this very day will not go unpunished; there is no statute of limitations. But despite repeated calls, the world has not succeeded in obliging Israel to stop this war of genocide and its war crimes against innocent civilians.

Palestinian people, for almost a year now, have been “subjected to one of the most heinous crimes of our era”.

Seventy-five percent of everything in Gaza has been fully destroyed.

The world bears responsibility for the situation of our people in Gaza and the West Bank.

We want a solution that will protect both countries, the State of Palestine and the State of Israel, so that they can coexist in peace, stability and security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

To speak for my country, to speak for the truth. And here’s the truth: Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace and will make peace again.

Yet we face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against them.

In measured military operations, we destroyed nearly all of Hamas’s terror battalions – 23 out of 24 battalions. Now, to complete our victory, we are focused on mopping up Hamas’s remaining fighting capabilities.

Israel must also defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon.