Israel is seeking peace despite fighting for its life against “barbaric enemies” who want its extermination, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday in his address to the UN General Assembly.

“My country is at war, it is fighting for its life,” Netanyahu said, adding “we must defend ourselves against these barbaric killers. Our enemies seek not only to destroy us, but they seek to destroy our common culture and return us all to a dark age of tyranny and terror.”

Netanyahu, among other things, said a Saudi-Israeli deal was close when he was at the United Nations last year, but then Hamas “crossed the border to murder, rape, mutilate and burn people alive in scenes reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust”.

Continuing, the Israeli prime minister said Israel had brought home 154 hostages, including 117 alive – most of them as part of a November ceasefire deal – and vowed not to rest until all the hostages returned home.

Netanyahu then pointed to the families of hostages present in the room and asked them to stand up while he then told the stories of each of the hostages represented by their families, including those whose bodies were recovered in Gaza and the survivors of the Nova festival.

Netanyahu pointed out that the “curse of October 7” had spread to six more fronts, including the Lebanese front as Hezbollah opened fire. At the same time, he referred to the more than 250 attacks by the Houthis in Yemen and the attacks by militias supported by Iran in Iraq.

“I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran,” he said, “if you hit us, we’ll hit you.”

“There is no place in Iran where the long arm of Israel cannot reach. And this applies to the entire Middle East.”

“We are winning,” exclaims Netanyahu.

As usual Netanyahu showed a map depicting a logistical bridge from India through the Middle East and Israel, a map of the “blessing”, as he characteristically said. He then showed a map of the “curse,” showing the crescent of Iran’s allies across the Middle East.

Netanyahu warned that Iran would endanger all countries in the Middle East and many others if left unchecked.

Referring to the war in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister said Hamas numbered nearly 40,000 on October 7, with a huge arsenal and network of tunnels. He said Israel killed half the terrorists, destroyed 90% of the rockets and destroyed 23 of the 24 battalions. Now Israel is hitting senior commanders and infrastructure.

He added that Israel remains focused on “our sacred mission” – returning the hostages to their homes.

Netanyahu then accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid and then selling it to its own people. “And that has to end, and we’re working to bring an end to it,” he says.

“If Hamas remains in power, it will regroup and rearm and attack Israel again and again and again, as it has vowed to do.”

“Hamas must go.”

He said it was “unthinkable” and “ridiculous” to suggest that Hamas could be part of the reconstruction of Gaza and that Israel would reject any plan that included it.

Israel will support any civilian administration in Gaza that is peaceful, he added.