October 13, 2024 8:45 PM.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today called on the UN Chief to move UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon out of harm’s way.
Netanyahu’s appeal to UN Chief Antonio Guterres comes a day after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, refused to withdraw from the border area despite five of its members being wounded in Israeli fire in recent days.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu 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.
UNIFIL, a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities that was created in 1978, is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah. Forty nations that contribute to the peacekeeping force in Lebanon said yesterday that they strongly condemn recent attacks on the peacekeepers.
