Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday called on the United Nations chief, Antonio Guterres, to move peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon out of harm’s way.
He claimed Hezbollah used the peacekeepers as human shields.
Netanyahu’s appeal to Guterres came a day after the UN Interim Force in Lebanon refused to withdraw from the border area despite five of its members being injured amid recent fighting.
Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office, “Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately.”
Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting, he said Israeli forces had asked UNIFIL several times to leave but it had met with repeated refusals that provided a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists.
“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers.
“We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone,” the premier said.
UNIFIL has refused to leave its positions in southern Lebanon.
“There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the Security Council,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP in an interview on Saturday.
He said Israel had asked UNIFIL to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometres (three miles) from the Blue Line” separating both countries, but the peacekeepers refused.
