Published October 16,2024
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The White House urged Israel Tuesday to respect the position of UN peacekeepers working in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu known as for the drive to withdraw.
“UNIFIL plays an important role, a peacekeeping role, in Lebanon, and we respect that role. We want everybody to respect that role, including Israel,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby advised reporters, referring to the peacekeeping drive.
The attraction got here after Netanyahu addressed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message Sunday, instantly telling him to “withdraw UNIFIL” from what he known as “Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat” as Israel pushes its floor invasion of Lebanon.
“Mr. Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” the Israeli premier stated.
The escalation in rhetoric got here after a collection of assaults on UNIFIL peacekeepers, the overwhelming majority of which the drive instantly blamed on Israel. Several peacekeepers have been injured.
Kirby stated the White House has “told Israel very directly that we oppose their near daily strikes here, in densely populated areas, in Beirut.”
“We understand that they’re conducting targeted operations that are designed to go after Hezbollah infrastructure, and we recognize that they have a right to do that,” he stated.
“But they also have a commensurate responsibility to do it in a way that doesn’t threaten the lives of civilians, or UN peacekeepers or, quite frankly, members of the Lebanese armed forces who have suffered some casualties here,” he added.
UNIFIL was established in March 1978 to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and help the Lebanese authorities in restoring authority within the space. Its mandate has been expanded over time, significantly after the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah warfare, to watch cease-fires and facilitate humanitarian assist.
Its mandate was final renewed unanimously by the UN Security Council in August.
Israel dramatically escalated its huge bombing marketing campaign throughout Lebanon in opposition to what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at the least 1,437 individuals, injuring over 4,123 others, and displacing greater than 1.34 million individuals.
The aerial marketing campaign is an escalation from a yr of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah for the reason that begin of Israel’s warfare on the Gaza Strip. More than 42,200 individuals, most of them ladies and kids, have been killed for the reason that warfare started within the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border assault on Israel.
Some 1,200 individuals had been killed in that assault, and about 250 others had been taken again to Gaza as hostages. Less than half stay captive within the largely destroyed coastal enclave.
Israel started its floor invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1.
Source: www.anews.com.tr