'Arrest Netanyahu': Israeli PM gets a New York welcome outside the UN

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a half-empty room at the UN General Assembly, thousands of protesters were gathered in Times Square to condemn his presence in New York City. 

Netanyahu was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2024, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Gaza since October 2023. 

All members of the ICC, which includes the United States, are legally obliged to enforce the warrants, though Hungary, an Israeli ally, has officially begun the process of withdrawal from the ICC.

The Israeli prime minister gave a combative speech to a nearly empty UN General Assembly hall on Friday, where he portrayed himself as the standard-bearer of mainstream Israel in rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state and denouncing Israel's genocide in Gaza as “a joke”.

As Netanyahu’s speech began, dozens of world leaders and diplomats walked out of the assembly hall in protest, even as US diplomats cheered him.

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