UNITED NATIONS – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a defiant speech at the United Nations on Friday in which he portrayed Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon as a fight for the country’s survival while criticizing the United Nations as “a swamp of anti-Semitic bile.”

He spoke to a nearly empty General Assembly hall as several national delegations had ended the campaign. Meanwhile, in the press box, which is open to all UNGA attendees, a group of supporters chanted “Bibi, I love you” while others booed.

The exhibition showed how divided the UN is over the escalating situation in the Middle East. But Netanyahu’s stance was clear: Israel is acting in self-defense and has no plans to stop fighting for this reason.

“It’s not about Gaza,” he said of criticism of his government’s handling of the war, which has so far killed over 41,000 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. “It’s about Israel. It was always about Israel. About the existence of Israel.”

Netanyahu did not mention international efforts at the United Nations to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

The Israeli leader insisted that the military would continue to attack Hezbollah with “all its might,” citing Hezbollah’s use of human shields, a likely indication that Lebanon’s civilian death toll has already exceeded 100,000 reached people 700 people since Monday is likely to rise.

“Hezbollah fires rockets from schools, hospitals and homes,” he said. “Hezbollah is endangering its own people. It sent a rocket into every kitchen, into every garage.” In recent days, Israel has signaled that it may be preparing a ground invasion of Lebanon to uproot Hezbollah. (Read more Here.)

Looking ahead, Netanyahu presented two maps that laid out Israel’s desired future for the Middle East. One was labeled “the blessing” – it showed a vision of “Israel connected to Europe” with “rail lines, fiber optic cables to serve the well-being of 2 million people” – and the second “the curse” – a map showing the depicts the same area he referred to as “Iran’s Arc of Terror.”

He directly warned Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other proxy groups in the region that have attacked Israel.

Just a few hours after his speech on Friday, the Israeli military came forward said It carried out an airstrike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut. It was confirmed early Saturday that longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in the attack.