TEL AVIV, October 13. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres with a demand to immediately withdraw the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers from the combat zone near the Lebanon-Israel border.

"Mr. Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm's way. It should be done right now, immediately," Netanyahu said in a video message released by the prime minister's office.

According to him, if the UN peacekeepers remain in their positions, they will become "hostages" of armed units of Lebanon’s Shia group Hezbollah, against whom the actions of Israeli troops are directed. "The Israel Defense Forces have repeatedly made this request (to withdraw the peacekeepers - TASS), but were refused, and this was aimed at providing Hezbollah terrorists with a human shield. Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers," the prime minister emphasized.

On October 10, UNIFIL reported that its main headquarters and strongholds had been shelled by the Israeli military. The agency said that two peacekeepers were injured. The Israeli army, for its part, said that its troops had fired at a threatening target near the UNIFIL position and that the peacekeepers had been injured accidentally. However, the servicemen said they had warned the UN forces in advance of the imminent fighting and had instructed them to "take cover in a protected area."

As Netanyahu said in his current address, Israel regrets what happened, but still insists that the best solution would have been to evacuate the peacekeepers from the area. "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," he pointed out.

On September 23, Israel launched Operation Northern Arrows against Hezbollah units in Lebanon, during which it is carrying out massive airstrikes against the movement’s military facilities. The stated goal is to create secure conditions in Israel’s northern border areas so that tens of thousands of residents can return there. As a result of one of the strikes, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated in Beirut on September 27. The organization confirmed his death and vowed to continue its confrontation with Israel. In the early morning hours of October 1, the Israeli army announced the start of a ground operation in the border areas in southern Lebanon.