Prime Minister of Isreal, Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the United Nations to immediately pull its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon from areas where Israel is battling Hezbollah, saying that the terror group is using the international troops as “human shields.”
Netanyahu’s comments came as the UN peacekeeping force said two Israel Defense Forces tanks had entered a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon position Sunday. The IDF said that the incident took place during an attempt to evacuate wounded IDF soldiers under fire.
In urging that members of UNIFIL be moved out of harm’s way, Netanyahu said that previous similar pleas by Israel had been refused, despite a rising number of injuries to UNIFIL troops.
Addressing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language message, “It is time for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat.”
“The IDF has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists,” he added.
“Mr. Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Netanyahu said in English.
UNIFIL said the Israeli military “deliberately” hit several UNIFIL posts, including the headquarters at Naqoura. At least five UNIFIL soldiers have been lightly injured in a spate of recent incidents that have also included shootings that the UN did not attribute to either Israel or Hezbollah.
“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said. “This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers.”
Netanyahu said Israel “regrets the injury” to the peacekeepers, and that it is doing whatever it can to prevent such incidents.
“But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is just get them out of the danger zone,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister said that European leaders should be criticizing Hezbollah, not Israel, for using UNIFIL as a “human shield.”