United Nations peacekeepers must be evacuated from southern Lebanon now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a call to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“From here I want to appeal directly to the UN Secretary-General,” Netanyahu said in a video statement in Hebrew about the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) which monitors the Israeli-Lebanese border.
“It is time for you [Guterres] to remove UNIFIL from Hezbollah’s strongholds and from the fighting areas,” Netanyahu stated.
He rephrased in English: “Mr. Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately.”
He spoke after two incidents in which IDF fire hit UNIFIL bases on the Lebanese side of the north border.
In Friday’s incident, Two UN peacekeepers were wounded by an Israeli strike near their watchtower, which served as UNIFIL’s main base in Naqoura. UNIFIL said an Israeli bulldozer had also knocked over barriers at UN positions near the Blue Line denoting the frontier between Lebanon and Israel, while tanks had moved into the vicinity.
Two Indonesian UN peacekeepers were hurt on Thursday after falling from a watchtower following Israeli tank fire, after which Israel said its troops had opened fire nearby.
The IDF is investigating the incidents but has said that its forces were operating against Hezbollah in those areas. European countries and the United States have called on Israel to ensure that the peacekeepers can safely operate, despite its military operation to push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon.
The IDF has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, Netanyahu said, explaining that keeping the peacekeepers at their base, turns them into human shields for Hezbollah.
“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 injury to the UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” Netanyahu stated.
US, European countries criticize incidents
The United States and a number of European countries — chief among them France and Spain — have criticized Israel over the attacks.
“Unfortunately, some of the European leaders are applying pressure in the wrong place,” Netanyahu said.
“Instead of criticizing Israel – they should direct their criticism to Hezbollah, which uses UNIFIL as a human shield,” he said.
UNIFIL has more than 10,000 personnel, with Italy, France, Malaysia, Indonesia and India among the biggest contributors.
The chief of staff of Ireland’s Defense Forces, which has around 340 personnel serving in UNIFIL, said Friday’s attack on the observation tower was deliberate.”An observer tower with a round from a tank directly into it, which is a very small target, has to be very deliberate, and it’s a direct fire. So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act. It’s a direct act,” Lieutenant General Sean Clancy told RTE television.
Israel has had a tense relationship with Guterres, which has only grown worse since October 7.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X Sunday that he had already declared Guterres as a “persona non grata and barred him from entering Israel due to his failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel, as well as his antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.
“A poll found that 87% of the Israeli public supports this decision. Guterres can continue seeking support from UN member states, but the decision will not change,” Katz wrote.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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