Defying criticism & calls for ceasefire, Netanyahu vows to continue campaign against Hezbollah, Hamas

Defying calls for a ceasefire and the harsh criticism from many world leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday vowed to continue the military campaign against Hezbollah and Hamas till there is "total victory".

"Enough is enough," he said at the high-level General Assembly meeting.

"Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely. And that's exactly what we're doing. Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year," he said, defending the campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah.

Netanyahu also gave a stern warning to Iran, which he accused of being behind the attacks on his country: "If you strike us, we will strike you."

His defiant stance raised the threat of the continuing attacks on Lebanon-based Hezbollah turning into a broader conflict and the hopes of a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza receding.

On Thursday, Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib gave his own warning.

"From this rostrum we warn against this aggression and the propensity to play with fire," he said, "will set aflame the entire Middle East".

Most speakers so far at the UN session called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the campaign against Hezbollah, while some like Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif who preceded him made vitriolic attacks on Israel.

The Gaza war, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people, most of them civilians, and the attacks on Hezbollah, which recently resulted in booby-trapped pagers exploding in Lebanon killing or maiming several people, including children, were mentioned by several of the speakers.

Netanyahu said that he did not intend to come to the UN, but "after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight".

He recounted the terrorist attack by Hamas almost a year ago on Israel that resulted in about 1,200 deaths and about 250 kidnappings.

Nearly 100 of the hostages are still held by Hamas or other terror groups, while some have died and others have been released on escape.

"This war can come to an end now," he said, adding: "All that has to happen is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its arms and release all the hostages."

Netanyahu used maps to illustrate his point that Tehran's campaign against Israel stretched in an arc from Yemen to Lebanon.

"There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach and that is true of the entire Middle East,"he warned.