Protesters march through Midtown as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in NYC for UNGA
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Israel overnight and landed in New York City, where he will address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.
The prime minister's flight had been delayed due to the ongoing fight between Israel and Hezbollah. Netanyahu was initially scheduled to take off Wednesday and address the United Nations on Thursday, but with the recent changes, he is now expected to speak on Friday.
A large anti-war protest is anticipated on Manhattan's East Side ahead of Netanyahu's arrival, as tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East. Protesters are already taking to the streets this week, as 32 people were arrested during a demonstration on Tuesday night.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the U.N. general assembly as war wages on in the Middle East.
Abbas pleaded to world leaders to broker a peace deal as pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched toward the United Nations.
Thousands of people gathered at the steps of the New York Public Library and marched toward the United Nations where they are holding a rally at 6 p.m.
The protests come as Netanyahu arrived in New York City. He spoke briefly when he arrived saying he plans to continue to strike Hezbollah with full force and will not stop until all of its goals are achieved.
"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.
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.
ALSO READ: President Biden says peace is still possible in the Mideast and Ukraine during UN address
