France blames Hezbollah for French peacekeeper's death in Lebanon / Photo: © AFP
France blames Hezbollah for French peacekeeper's death in Lebanon
A French soldier was killed and three others wounded in an attack Saturday on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon that appeared to have been carried out by Hezbollah, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
"Everything points to Hezbollah being responsible for this attack," he said on X, urging Lebanese authorities to arrest the perpetrators.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire on Thursday in order to negotiate an end to six weeks of war between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
The fighting in Lebanon -- one of the fronts in the Middle East war -- has seen the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deployed there repeatedly targeted, by both Israeli and Hezbollah forces.
The peacekeeper killed, identified as staff sergeant Florian Montorio, was caught in an "ambush" as his unit headed to a UNIFIL outpost and he died from a "direct gunshot", France's armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said on X.
She said the outpost they had been heading to had been "cut off for several days by combat in the area".
The ambush was carried out "by an armed group at very close range", she said.
Vautrin added that Montorio was "picked up by his comrades under fire" but they were unable to resuscitate him.
- Possible 'war crimes' -
Macron's office said he held calls with Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun and Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to urge them to "guarantee the security of UNIFIL soldiers".
Aoun condemned the attack and pledged to bring those responsible to justice, while Salam said he had ordered an investigation.
UNIFIL, in an online statement, said the peacekeepers "came under small-arms fire from non-state-actors" as they were "clearing explosive ordnance along a road in the village of Ghanduriyah" to get to the outpost.
"Tragically, one peacekeeper succumbed to his injuries and three others were injured, two of them seriously," it said.
Its initial assessment indicates the incoming fire was "allegedly Hezbollah", it said, adding that it had launched its own investigation into what "may amount to war crimes".
UNIFIL patrols in south Lebanon near the Israeli border where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since last month after the Iran-backed militant group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.
Three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed last month, with a preliminary UN investigation finding one was killed by Israeli tank fire, while the two others were killed by an improvised explosive device likely planted by Hezbollah.
Other UNIFIL peacekeepers have also been wounded since the war erupted, and in April, Israeli soldiers destroyed surveillance cameras in UNIFIL's headquarters, the peacekeeping body said.
Last week, an Israeli tank twice rammed peacekeeping vehicles, causing damage but no injuries, according to UNIFIL.
United Nations peacekeepers have served as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel for decades, but their mandate concludes at the end of this year.
(Y.Leyard--DTZ)
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