Netanyahu: Gaza Genocide Accusation is ‘Greatest Lie of the Century’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, pushed back on those accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, calling it the “greatest lie of the century.”

Netanyahu rebutted the genocide notion, citing steps Israel has taken to mitigate death and destruction in Gaza. He accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields and hospitals, schools, and mosques as terror cells.

“We sent millions of text messages warning civilians to leave combat areas, we made millions of phone calls. We dropped millions of leaflets,” Netanyahu continued. “I want to ask you some questions. What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy’s population?” Netanyahu continued. “What genocidal regime enables the distribution of 2 million tons of food into Gaza? That’s a ton for every person.”

As he took the podium, dozens of delegates walked out of the assembly hall.

The Israeli leader quoted Col. John Spencer, the head of urban warfare studies at West Point who has come to Israel’s defense over its military tactics in Gaza, saying that “Israel has done more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any other military in history.”

“We’ve taken innumerable steps to protect the civilian population,” Netanyahu said. “Is this genocide? Of course not. It’s the opposite of genocide.”

However, the United Nations has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, chair of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

Additionally, Netanyahu criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his disparagement of Israel amid the rise of anti-Semitism in the Big Apple.

“Mr. Mamdani: Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me, ‘This isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly,’” Netanyahu said.

New York leads the United States in anti-Semitic incidents despite a decrease in the number of such instances in 2025, compared with the previous year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Netanyahu cited instances of Mamdani’s Israel-critical stances.

“You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas,” he said.

Netanyahu cited Mamdani inviting into his home Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian journalist “who filmed Hamas terrorists beating and torturing Israeli hostages, and later admitted that he refused to publish the videos in order to protect, you guessed it, the terrorists.”

Netanyahu also noted that Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, had approved of a post celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and another post saying Tel Aviv shouldn’t exist.

“You refuse to condemn any of that,” Netanyahu said. “You falsely repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide.”

Mamdani has criticized Netanyahu, calling him a “war criminal” and initially threatened to arrest him if he came to New York, in accordance with an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Netanyahu for what the Hague-based institution has alleged were war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Mamdani backed off from his threat in July, acknowledging that the New York Police Department does not have the authority to enforce the warrant.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Mamdani criticized Netanyahu’s speech and repeated that Netanyahu is wanted by the ICC.

“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians,” he said. “Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The ICC said the warrant for Netanyahu, which was issued in 2024, was for “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC.”

Neither Israel nor the United States is a party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.

Chris Summers contributed to this report.