Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Forces in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) to immediately withdraw from the combat zone in the south of the country.
Netanyahu addressed his demand directly to UN Secretary General António Guterres during a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
“It is time for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language message. He accused Guterres of refusing to do so, thereby turning UNIFIL soldiers into “hostages of Hezbollah.”
Netanyahu said he “regrets” that UNIFIL soldiers were injured after Israeli soldiers fired on the blue helmet soldiers’ positions.
UNIFIL’s job with more than 10,000 soldiers was to monitor compliance with the ceasefire following the 2006 Lebanon War.
