Netanyahu calls on U.N. peacekeepers to immediately withdraw from Lebanon as fighting intensifies

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on United Nations peacekeepers to heed the Israeli military’s warnings to evacuate Lebanon immediately as the fighting intensifies amid Israel’s ground operation.

Israeli forces have repeatedly fired upon locations where first responders and U.N. peacekeepers were present since the start of the ground operation against Hezbollah. The military has accused the Iran-backed militant group of using ambulances to ferry fighters and weapons and says Hezbollah operates in the vicinity of the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.

On Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in the wreckage of a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.

It said the rescue operation had been coordinated with U.N. peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Jagan Chapagain, who heads the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called for rescuers to be protected.

“We have said it before and today we say it again: the Red Cross emblem must be respected under International Humanitarian Law,” he said in a statement shared on X.

In recent days, Israeli strikes have wounded five peacekeepers.

In a video addressed to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has been banned from entering Israel, Netanyahu called for peacekeepers to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.

“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said 

He added: “Mr. Secretary-General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately.”

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has refused to leave its positions in southern Lebanon.

“There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the Security Council,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023 – a day after Hamas attacked Israel, starting the war in Gaza. The conflict dramatically escalated in September with a wave of Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon earlier this month.

At least 2,255 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, including more than 1,400 people since September, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters. At least 54 people have been killed in the rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.