Conflict in the Middle East, Live | Israel confirms four soldiers killed in Hezbollah drone strike international

Netanyahu urges UN to withdraw peacekeepers from southern Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this Sunday urged the United Nations to remove troops of its peacekeeping force, Finul, from war zones in Lebanon.

Netanyahu said the military had repeatedly asked the United Nations to withdraw the troops, saying their presence in the area made them hostages of Hezbollah.

United Nations troops are serving in southern Lebanon at the request of the Security Council under Resolution 1701 (2006). “Any deliberate attack against peacekeeping personnel is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolution 1701 (2006),” the organization warned after one of the Israeli attacks against its facilities this week, in which five Blue Helmets were killed. Have been injured.

“Now is the time to withdraw Finul from Hezbollah’s strongholds and war zones,” Netanyahu said in an official statement addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

In it, the Israeli Prime Minister lamented that the Israeli military had made this request before, only to be “consistently rejected”; While denying, he assured, “The intention was entirely to provide a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists.”

“Refusal to withdraw FINUL forces turns its members into Hezbollah hostages and also endangers the lives of our soldiers,” Netanyahu stressed in the statement.

He concluded, “Mr. Secretary General, withdraw Finul forces from the threatened areas. Do this now, immediately.”

Also this Sunday, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, reiterated that his country considers personalityless Guterres was blamed for failing to condemn Iran’s missile attack and by Katz for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel behavior.