Heated rhetoric marks emergency meeting of U.N. General Assembly

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- During Thursday's emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly, an Iranian official called Israel's bombing of Gaza "genocide," while Israel referred to Hamas as "modern-day Nazis."

The General Assembly took up the task of passing a resolution on the latest Israel-Palestine conflict after the Security Council failed to do so.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran's foreign affairs of Iran, said the world should respond to the "war crime and genocide" of Israel's attack on Gaza.

"This is the situation of the Security Council, which was supposed to try to establish world peace and security,"Amir-Abdollahian said. "Instead of sending rockets, tanks and bombs, to be used against Gaza, the United States should stop the genocide in Gaza and Palestine."

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan stressed that his country is not fighting with the Palestinians but the militant group Hamas. He charged that Hamas is using the Palestinian population for their goal to destroy Israel.

"Israel is at war with the genocidal jihadist Hamas terror organization," Erdan said. "It is the law-abiding democracy of Israel against modern-day Nazis."

Erdan said innocent Israelis have been taken hostage and killed by Hama while the organization's supporters only cry for Palestinian civilian deaths.

"The hypocrisy is beyond belief," he said.

Riyad Mansour, representing the Palestinians, questioned why there wasn't a stronger call for a cease-fire or a resolution. He said it wasn't up to Israel or the Palestinians to end the conflict, but for the United Nations to take a stronger stand against war.

"Why not feel a sense of urgency to ending the killing," he said. "You are setting us back 80 years by trying to justify what Israel is doing now. The only path forward is justice for the Palestinian people. Vote to stop the killing, vote to stop this madness."

Shortly after noon ET, General Assembly President Dennis Francis gaveled the meeting to a close and said it would reconvene Friday morning. That session is expected to last all day with a long list of speakers.