TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Israel will demand the convocation of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn the actions of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

"I instructed the Israeli delegation to the UN to request the convocation of an emergency meeting of the Security Council to condemn Hezbollah and its actions," Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation.

The prime minister said he discussed with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday the issue of imposing new sanctions against Hezbollah. Netanyahu added he was going to hold talks on Hezbollah with other world leaders and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in the next few days.

The prime minister reiterated accusations of Iran using Hezbollah as a proxy and warned it would hold Tehran responsible for any terrorist actions carried out by the Lebanese movement in adjacent Israeli territories.

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"We will continue doing all we can to protect ourselves from Iran’s attempts to use Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip as its forward operating bases to launch attacks on Israel," Netanyahu announced.

He did not rule out that the operation could expand and take time, saying it aimed to guarantee the nation’s safety. Netanyahu said previously his country would act both covertly and openly to ensure national security.

Earlier in the day, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus announced that the Israeli army was launching the Northern Shield operation at the Israeli-Lebanese border in order to find and destroy cross-border tunnels of the Hezbollah movement.