Netanyahu asked the UN Secretary General to “immediately” withdraw the mission in Lebanon. international

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has increased pressure on the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL) and asked it to “immediately” withdraw from southern Lebanon because, according to him, it is being used as a “human shield” by Hezbollah. Used to be. The President of the Jewish State made this known through a video addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, asking him to order its withdrawal. blue helmet Who are deployed in southern Lebanon. “Now is the time for UNIFIL to withdraw from Hezbollah strongholds and war zones,” he urged in a video message amid a climate of rising tensions.

Netanyahu’s request comes after a week of attacks by the peacekeeping force, which is made up of about 10,000 troops, more than 650 of whom are Spanish. According to UNIFIL, some of these attacks, which injured four soldiers, occurred on Thursday and Friday due to firing by Israeli occupation troops deployed in the area since early October. The circumstances under which the fifth person got injured on Saturday are not yet clear.

“The military has repeatedly requested for this, and has been repeatedly denied, for the purpose of providing human shields to Hezbollah terrorists,” Netanyahu said in the recording. “Mr. Secretary General, remove UNIFIL forces from any threat. This must be done now, immediately,” says the head of the Israeli government.

Netanyahu says he regrets the damage done to the mission, while also saying that “refusing to evacuate UNIFIL troops makes them hostages of Hezbollah,” something that both the international contingent and Israeli troops in the area are concerned about. Increases the risk for. In turn, the Israeli Prime Minister takes the opportunity to criticize European leaders as they should criticize Hezbollah rather than the Jewish state’s military.

condemnation of member countries

More than 30 countries involved in that mission, including Spain, made public in a letter condemning the attacks and the increase in violence in the region. In the text he “reaffirmed” support for the mission and its work, which he considers “crucial” in the current war situation for stability and peace not only in Lebanon, but in the entire Middle East region. Likewise, they demand that the conflicting parties allow blue helmet Can continue to develop your mission.

The Government of Israel ultimately decided in 2000 to implement Resolution 425 which had been adopted by the United Nations Security Council in 1978 – which gave rise to the deployment of UNIFIL –, demanding Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, whose occupation began the same year. And with it it expanded. Military invasion of 1982. Subsequently, the two countries once again experienced the 2006 war, which lasted just a month, until hostilities resumed a year earlier.

This Sunday is not the first time that Israeli officials have pressured a UN peacekeeping mission to withdraw from an area where their troops have invaded. The last person to do so openly was Danny Danon, the Jewish state’s representative to the United Nations last Thursday. “We recommend that UNIFIL move five kilometers north to avoid danger if fighting intensifies,” he warned. who are responsible for blue helmet Amidst the recent attacks, he has stressed that this is not going to be a comeback.

Before the ground offensive by Israeli forces, various military sources had criticized throughout the war that, from their perspective, it was futile to deploy such large numbers of troops. blue helmet That they are not able to stop Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. Furthermore, he says that one of the reasons for carrying out this operation, supported by intense bombardment from the air, is to do the work on the ground that he believes UNIFIL should be doing, although, in fact, its mandate includes Does not include what the Israeli government demands.

The primary objective that Israel has set with the current operation in southern Lebanon is to allow 60,000 residents around the border to safely return to their homes. The Shia militia party backed by Iran began bombing its southern neighbor on October 8, 2023, a day after the great Hamas massacre and the Israeli army began its punitive campaign in Gaza in which more than 42,000 people have already been killed .