Protesters limit access to Grand Central Terminal ahead of Netanyahu's U.N. General Assembly address
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Multiple large demonstrations protesting the war in the Middle East were underway in New York City on Thursday, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
Dueling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters gathered near Grand Central Thursday evening, leading to restricted access to the terminal.
Police separated the dueling groups and blocked off some entrances, preventing demonstrators from entering.
Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered at the steps of the New York Public Library and marched toward the United Nations where they were holding a rally.
The large anti-war protests were anticipated on Manhattan's East Side as tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East.
Netanyahu spoke as he landed in New York Thursday to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting, where U.S. and European officials were putting heavy pressure on both sides of the conflict to accept a proposed 21-day halt in the fighting to give time for diplomacy and avert all-out war.
However, Netanyahu vowed to carry out "full force" strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border dimming hopes for a cease-fire proposal. He is expected to address the general assembly on Friday.
"The U.S. and Israel are together in this and the United States is using its impunity basically to let Netanyahu come here and speak at the U.N. The people of the U.S. are not OK with that. We don't accept that our government, that our tax dollars are being used to kill men, women and children in Palestine and now Lebanon," Layan Fuleihan, the People's Forum Education Director said while protesting.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, pleading to world leaders to broker a peace deal.
Abbas strode to the podium to loud applause and a few unintelligible shouts. His first words were a sentence repeated three times: "We will not leave. We will not leave. We will not leave."
He accused Israel of destroying Gaza and making it unlivable.
Danny Danon, Israel's U.N. ambassador, responded to Abbas' speech within minutes with a critical assessment. "Abbas spoke for 26 minutes and did not say the word 'Hamas' once. Since the massacre of Oct. 7, Abbas has failed to condemn Hamas for their crimes against humanity," he said.
From the dais of the U.N. General Assembly just a year ago, Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.
The devastating war in Gaza is about to hit the one-year mark. Israel is on the cusp of a wider regional war with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. And the country finds itself increasingly isolated internationally and led by a polarizing leader whose handling of the conflict has sparked protests both in global capitals and on the streets of his own country.
And it's not just the mushrooming regional conflicts weighing Israel down. Netanyahu arriving in New York was also burdened by what could be an imminent warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court, what would put him in a fellowship of sorts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir.
Meanwhile, the U.S., France and other allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.
The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, says the recent fighting is "intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation."
"We call for an immediate 21-day cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy," the statement said. "We call on all parties, including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary cease-fire immediately."
In response to a possible ceasefire, the prime minister's office says the news is not true, saying, "The news about a ceasefire is incorrect. This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond. The news about the supposed directive to moderate the fighting in the north is also the opposite of the truth."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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