Delegates Walk Out, Boo Netanyahu at UN General Assembly

Delegates walked out of the United Nations General Assembly hall in New York and jeers rose from the floor as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium to address the world body, according to TRT World. The protest came as Israel faces sustained international criticism over its war in Gaza.

The scene has become a pattern. In September 2024, several delegations left the chamber as Netanyahu began speaking. In September 2025, dozens of diplomats walked out at the start of his speech. That address came days after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Portugal and France joined the majority of UN member states in formally recognising the State of Palestine. Netanyahu used the speech to attack those recognitions, while Israeli authorities set up loudspeakers to broadcast his remarks into Gaza.

Netanyahu attends the Assembly as the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. The court issued it in November 2024, alongside one for former defence minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare. At the International Court of Justice, South Africa's genocide case against Israel continues.

For Qatar, the war has been both a diplomatic file and a direct security threat. Doha, working with Egypt and the United States, mediated the truce and hostage-prisoner exchanges of November 2023 and January 2025. On 9 September 2025, Israel struck a residential compound in Doha where Hamas negotiators were meeting to discuss a US ceasefire proposal. The attack killed a Qatari security officer, Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed Al-Humaidi Al-Dosari, and five other people. Qatar called the strike a flagrant violation of its sovereignty. An emergency Arab-Islamic summit convened in Doha days later. Netanyahu later apologised to Qatar's Prime Minister in a call placed from the White House. Qatar then helped broker the Gaza ceasefire signed at Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2025.

The walkout shows how isolated the Israeli government remains on the world's main diplomatic stage, as Qatar and its partners keep pressing for accountability and an end to the suffering in Gaza.