Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the United Nations to remove their troops from southern Lebanon after several peacekeepers were injured in separate incidents this week during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
The U.N.’s mission in Lebanon, known as the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), has released statements several days in a row discussing Israeli forces’ operations that have injured multiple peacekeepers.
“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,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. “Mr. Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately.”
The incidents that have resulted in injuries to five UNIFIL troops have been widely condemned internationally.
He argued UNIFIL should withdraw “from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones,” claimed previous requests were refused repeatedly; as a result, UNIFIL soldiers have “turned them into hostages of Hezbollah.”
“There was a unanimous decision to stay” in the area, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told AFP on Saturday.
Forty countries issued a statement over the weekend saying they “strongly condemn recent attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers,” adding, “Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated.”
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati did as well. He said, “The warning that Netanyahu addressed to… Guterres demanding the removal of the UNIFIL represents a new chapter in the enemy’s approach of not complying with international” norms.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin most recently spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Saturday. A Pentagon spokesman said Austin “expressed his deep concerns about reports that Israeli forces fired on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon as well as the reported death of two Lebanese soldiers.”
“The Secretary strongly emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces and reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible,” Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, added.
Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting for more than a year now. Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas carried out the most deadly terrorist attack in Israel’s history. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel over the last year, and Israel has responded to those cross-border attacks — which occurred despite UNIFIL’s presence.
Israel ramped up their operations against Hezbollah in early September, which included the assassination of most of the U.S.-designated terrorist group’s senior leadership, including Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military has also targeted and killed some of Nasrallah’s possible successors.
Israeli forces have also conducted limited ground incursions into southern Lebanon while continuing to conduct airstrikes targeting Hezbollah officials and their military stockpiles. Lebanese officials have said about 2,000 people have been killed, while about a million have been displaced.
There has been a diplomatic push from the Lebanese government, in addition to several other countries, to get Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a short-term ceasefire deal that would allow for more intense diplomacy, but it’s unclear if it will be enough to get a deal finalized.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
UNIFIL was created in 1978 to confirm Israel withdrew from Lebanon, and their mission expanded in 2006 due to the war that broke out between Israel and Hezbollah.
The monthlong war in 2006 ended via U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the area as well. Hezbollah was supposed to move north of the Litani River, which would create a roughly 18-mile zone in southern Lebanon separating Hezbollah from the Israeli border. Hezbollah has never fully implemented the rules outlined by the resolution.