Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tonight rejected accusations that the Israeli military deliberately targeted UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (NIFIL), calling them “totally false”. He also repeated his appeal to the blue-collar workers to withdraw from the war zones.

Israel regrets any harm caused to UNIFIL personnel, he stressed. The military, Netanyahu continued, was doing everything it could to avoid harming members of the force while striking Hezbollah fighters.

“But the best way to ensure the safety of UNIFIL personnel is for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s request and temporarily remove itself from danger“, he added.

The blue-collar workers will stay in Lebanon

A little earlier, French Foreign Minister Sebastien Lecorny, speaking on public French television France 5, stressed that the blue-collar workers have a “mission to stay” in Lebanon.

“The day the guns fall silent, there will always be that Blue Line (ie the border between Israel and Lebanon), there will be resolution 1701 or a new resolution, there will always be a zone where we will have to ensure neutrality her“, said the French minister.

“The United Nations assigned (the mandate) to these forces and it is up to the United Nations to withdraw it, unless a rescinding mandate is given by the contracting states“, he added.

European countries participating in UNIFIL (Italy, France, Spain and Ireland) will meet on Wednesday to coordinate their actions. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has already stated that “there will be no withdrawal of UNIFIL».

In the context of UNIFIL action, approx 10,000 blueheads from Indonesia, Nepal, India, Malaysia, Ghana, China, the four European countries mentioned above and from others.