Israel’s prime minister has urged the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon to evacuate the region “immediately”.
In a video statement issued by his office on Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) to get its troops “out of harm’s way”, claiming that their presence in the region made them “hostages of Hezbollah”.
His comments come following condemnation of several instances of Unifil troops being injured due to military action in the region – with Israel admitting responsibility for firing toward UN posts in some cases.
Israel has previously asked Unifil to withdraw north by 5km (3 miles) after it launched an invasion targeting the armed group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near daily cross-border fire since last October, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel.
Nearly 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries are stationed in Lebanon, alongside around 800 civilian staff.
Since 1978, they have patrolled the area between the Litani River and the UN-recognised boundary between Lebanon and Israel known as the “Blue Line”.
Five peacekeepers have been injured in recent days. On Saturday, Unifil said a soldier had been shot at its headquarters in the city of Naquora – though it did not know the origin of the bullet.
The day before, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were responsible for an incident in which two Unifil troops from Sri Lanka were injured.
On Thursday, two Indonesian Unifil soldiers were injured falling from an observation tower after an Israeli tank fired towards it.
The incidents prompted rebukes from several of Israel’s allies, including France, Italy and Spain. A Downing Street spokesperson said the UK was “appalled”.
In his comments on Sunday, Netanyahu said European leaders should direct their criticism towards Hezbollah, not Israel.
Israel has argued that Unifil has failed to stabilise the region and prevent Hezbollah fighters from operating south of the Litani River – among the reasons for a UN presence there.
It has previously said that it was acting on a 2004 UN resolution calling for the disbanding of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militant groups, and that its request for peacekeepers to withdraw was so it can confront Hezbollah.
Netanyahu said these appeals had been “met with refusals”, and that Unifil was providing a “human shield to Hezbollah terrorists”.
“This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers,” he added.
“We regret the injuring of Unifil soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injuring. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone.”
Unifil officials have repeatedly refused to withdraw troops from the region.
The body’s spokesman Andrea Tenenti told the AFP news agency on Saturday that there had been a “unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region”.