BEIRUT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations on Sunday to withdraw its peacekeeping mission from southern Lebanon amid a ground incursion in the area.

“It is time for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“The IDF (Israeli army) has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists,” he claimed.

“Mr. Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” the Israeli premier said.

Two peacekeepers were injured on Thursday in an Israeli attack on a UN observation post in southern Lebanon. An artillery shell also hit UNIFIL’s main command center in the border town of Naqoura the following day.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel “regrets” the injury of UN peacekeepers. “But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is just get them out of the danger zone,” he said.

“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah,” Netanyahu claimed. “This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers.”

UNIFIL was established in March 1978 to confirm Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon and assist the Lebanese government in restoring authority in the area. Its mandate has been expanded over the years, particularly after the 2006 Israeli war, to monitor cease-fires and facilitate humanitarian aid.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara