Israel’s Ambassador on Gaza – General Assembly Media Stakeout – United Nations

22 September 2025

Informal comments to the media by Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, on the situation in Gaza ahead of the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

Transcript (excerpt on the situation in Gaza):

Ambassador: In a few minutes, we will see a theater when President Mcron and his colleagues will gather for the so-called conference.

This is a theater because we all know that it’s detached from reality while President Macron and his colleagues will celebrate 48 hostages who will stay in captivity in Gaza.

We know that this conference is from it came to life from domestic interests. It is not diplomacy. When Hamas is praising this conference and calling it the fruit of October 7th, we know it’s a problem. If a terrorist organization is supporting what’s happening here, it’s shameful.

Many leaders today will speak about the future when Hamas will not be part of Gaza. But I will ask them who is going to do that? Who is going to actually make sure that Hamas is not part of Gaza? The responsibility is on our shoulders. Israel is committed to continue this war until we bring back all the hostages and until Hamas is out of the game completely.

That will be the time that we can speak about the future, not before and not with hollow gestures like we will see in a few minutes. Thank you.

But to President Macron and other leaders, I would say we are disappointed. On October 8th, you stood with Israel. You spoke about the hostages. Today you’re moving on. You’re trying to leave the hostages behind. We will not forget them. This war will not end with hostages stealing Gaza.

Ambassador: Before October 7th, there was a debate about that in Israel. After October 7th, it’s off the table. Now, we are focused on bringing the hostages. We are focused on eliminating Hamas. And when the day will come that there will be a genuine Palestinian leadership that will condemn terrorism. You’re going to hear President Abbas soon is paying salaries to terrorists as we speak.

When the day will come that there will be genuine leadership, we will speak with the Palestinians. We are a peaceful nation. We signed multiple peace accords and hopefully we will sign more accords in the near future.

Ambassador: Well, Benny, I have seen the report. I don’t know if it’s true or not. We are putting more pressure now on Gaza city and we are very happy to see that the population is moving out despite the threats of Hamas and they know that we are serious and they know that we will not stop until we will get all the all the hostages back home. So I think they understand that we are serious about that. This is a show but what we are doing on the ground that’s for real.

Ambassador: Absolutely not. And I want to remind you that exactly 20 years ago, we actually took out all the Jewish communities, the so-called settlements from Gaza. We took the cemeteries. We took everybody out from Gaza. And look what happened on October 7th. So no one can make the connection between Jewish communities and hostility of Hamas. There was a ceasefire before October 7th and still Hamas chose to attack us.

Question: So why do you think the are moving against you? They’re your friends.

Ambassador: I can explain it that you know it’s it is a very long war. It is the longest war in our history and many countries wants to take action and to feel that they are doing something. They cannot speak with Hamas. With all due respect to President Macron…cannot give instructions to Hamas. So it’s easier to come here make statements take pictures. They feel they are doing something but they are not promoting peace. On the contrary they are supporting terrorism.

Question: Ambassador will there be a reaction by Israel to these these these recognitions?

Ambassador: Prime Minister Netanyahu was very clear about it. We will take actions because what are we seeing now is a unilateral action and those issues were supposed to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian in the future. We tried to do it in the past where many times but to come to the UN and try to bypass it and grants recognition unilaterally there will be consequences for that.

Ambassador: So I want to remind you what happened when the UK actually the British mandate was over and a vote came to this building to recognize Israel and an Arab state. We said yes, we grabbed the opportunity.

The Palestinians say no. They rejected the opportunity. So, no one can blame us for that. And I think you know some countries will say that they will not recognize the Palestinian state until Hamas will be out of the game or until the hostages will come back. But they have to look at the reality. There is a very weak leadership today to the Palestinians.

In Gaza there is no leadership. Hamas will not be there. But also in Judea and Samaria we see a very weak regime. It will be very hard for this regime to negotiate in the future.

Ambassador: Well, that’s for the government to decide. Prime Minister Netanyahu said it will not be discussed now. It will be coming to the UN delivery speech. He will fly to Washington to meet President Trump. And when he will come back to Israel after our holiday, the Jewish New Year, he will discuss what the actions will be.

Ambassador: So, we are willing to negotiate a ceasefire. We know what it will look like at the end of the process. Hamas will not be there. So, we are still negotiating and we are talking with the negotiators and and we hope that there will be continuation for that. But the endgame it will be that Gaza will not have Hamas control.

Ambassador: Well for sure we want to end the war. You know no one wants to send his kids to fight in Gaza. You know my late father fought in Gaza. I fought in Gaza. My son fought in Gaza. How many generations? We have no desire to be in Gaza. That’s why we pulled out of Gaza.

But at the same time, we have a commitment for Israeli citizens who were kidnapped on October 7th and are still in the tunnels of Gaza. We cannot leave them behind. So with all the due respect, and I agree with you that you have a lot of domestic issues in different countries, but with all due respect to those domestic issues, for us it’s a non-starter. We will make sure the hostages are out of Gaza.

Ambassador: I told them that when they voted on this resolution that it’s a theater. They know it’s not going anywhere. It’s not going to change the lives of the Palestinian on the ground. It’s not going to change the security of Israelis on the ground. It’s empty, you know, and that’s the problem with the Palestinians. They come here every year. They have empty victories, empty declarations instead of actually condemning terrorism and build a better future. And as I said earlier, we left Gaza in 2005. We gave the keys to the Palestinians to build a better society and promote coexistence and we saw what happened after.

Ambassador: We discussed with the Palestinians so many times, but today we have to be honest and to acknowledge that there is no partner on the other side. You know, we all speak about Hamas, but the fact that the PA itself paying salaries to convicted the terrorists, President Abbas himself, you cannot ask him because he’s not coming here, but you can ask his representative why they have the pay to slay policy. Two weeks ago, there was an attack in Jerusalem. six Israelis were murdered. The families of the terrorist will receive a monthly payment of $1,000. It’s coming from the pocket of President Abbas. So that’s not a good sign for us. The people of Israel pray for peace. We want to have peace, but we want to know that we have a partner for that.

Ambassador: First, you know, I don’t like the word annexation. And I call it applying sovereignty. You know, when some when something belongs to you, you don’t annex. And I think it’s a decision that the government will have to discuss. I don’t know if you do it as a as a counter effort. You know, in the past, we applied sovereignty over the Golan Heights, over East Jerusalem, but that’s a discussion for the government.

Ambassador: I said earlier, it will be everything will be discussed in the government upon the return of the prime minister from the meeting with President Trump on Monday.

Ambassador: So we we just saw a a video that was released by Kamas a few hours ago where we can see the condition of the hostages. You know, horrible footage. You know, we are uh we believe that 20 of the hostages are alive but in a very bad condition. You know, in few weeks it’s going to be two years in captivity. Some of them need medical care, but they don’t get visitations from the Red Cross or from anyone else. And we know that they’re in a very bad shape.

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