The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday published an editorial entitled “A UN Peacekeeper is Hezbollah’s Best Friend”, criticizing UNIFIL after it refused to relocate its peacekeepers who are stationed in Lebanon when asked to do so by Israel.

The editorial noted the failure of UNIFIL in its role to keep armed terrorists out of southern Lebanon, where they could shoot at Israel.

“It failed so abysmally that Israel has had to go to war to clear out the terrorists. So what does UNIFIL do now? It refuses to fight, refuses to move, and blames Israel for putting its non-peacekeepers at risk,” the editorial pointed out.

“UNIFIL was supposed to keep the north of Israel out of danger. Instead it has allowed Hezbollah to entrench itself in southern Lebanon over the years, storing arms in many of the homes and building a network of fully stocked attack tunnels and small outdoor weapons depots in preparation for an Oct. 7-style assault. Israeli troops have found a tunnel about 100 meters from a UNIFIL outpost.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial noted that Hezbollah has fired more than 8,500 rockets and missiles at Israel in recent months, under UNIFIL’s nose, but the peacekeepers did little about it.

“UNIFIL finally seems to have found its calling: Getting in Israel’s way,” said the editorial, outlining several incidents in recent days in which UNIFIL personnel suffered minor injuries by Israeli strikes, adding, “These injuries are regrettable, but they show that it isn’t safe to remain in a war zone.”

“Yet UNIFIL has become the toast of the diplomatic circuit for provoking condemnations of Israel…Hezbollah couldn’t have scripted it better. And where was this diplomatic energy when Hezbollah dominated the area, and used it to force the depopulation of Israel’s north? It was missing in action, like UNIFIL. That’s why UNIFIL grandstands, and leaves its peacekeepers in harm’s way, while Israel fights and does their job for them,” concluded the editorial.

UNIFIL has accused Israel in recent days of deliberately targeting its peacekeepers in Lebanon.

The IDF has stressed that the IDF instructed UNIFIL personnel to enter into protected spaces before the strikes and added and explained that Hezbollah deliberately operates with the intent to harm Israeli civilians from civilian areas and near UNIFIL posts.

On Sunday, the IDF revealed that over the past month, approximately 25 rockets and missiles have been launched at Israeli communities and IDF troops from Hezbollah’s terrorist compounds embedded near UNIFIL posts in southern Lebanon, exploiting their proximity to UN forces. One of the attacks resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to accusations that the IDF has targeted UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, calling these accusations "completely false."

"The charge that Israel deliberately attacked UNIFIL personnel is completely false," Netanyahu stated. "It's exactly the opposite. Israel repeatedly asks UNIFIL to get out of harm's way. It repeatedly asked them to temporarily leave the combat zone, which is right next to Israel's border with Lebanon."

Netanyahu also again urged UNIFIL to relocate its peacekeepers so they are away from IDF activity. However, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix outright rejected that request on Monday.

"The decision was made that UNIFIL would currently stay in all its positions in spite of the calls that were made by the Israel Defense Forces to vacate the positions that are in the vicinity of the Blue Line," he stated.