A peacekeeper was killed, and two others injured, in southern Lebanon on the evening of Wednesday June 3. The soldier killed was Serbian, specifying that he died “from injuries caused by the fall of a missile on the UN base”.
A peacekeeper was killed and two others injured in southern Lebanon where mortar fire hit their base, the UN peacekeeping force announced Thursday, June 4.
In a statement, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the attack occurred late Wednesday evening. A security source told AFP that the shots had hit the UNIFIL base in Ibl al-Saqi.
The peacekeeper killed was Serbian, announced the Serbian Ministry of Defense, specifying that he died “as a result of injuries caused by the fall of a missile on the UN base”.
Born in 1989, Staff Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic “received emergency medical treatment at a hospital inside the base after being injured, then was transported by helicopter to the Center medical university of Beirut, where he died around 4 a.m. local time”, adds the press release.
Seven peacekeepers killed since March 2
He is the seventh UNIFIL peacekeeper killed since Lebanon was drawn into the war on March 2, after pro-Iranian Hezbollah fired shots against Israel in support of Tehran. The Force indicated that an investigation had been opened, while calling on the Lebanese authorities to also carry out investigations.
UNIFIL currently has 7,500 peacekeepers from around fifty countries.
They are deployed in southern Lebanon, along the Blue Line which extends over 120 kilometers, drawing a de facto border between Lebanon and Israel.
They are positioned in an area where fighting has continued since March 2, and where the Israeli army has undertaken its deepest military incursion into Lebanon since 2000. “The violence must stop,” UNIFIL urged.
Several deaths attributed to the Israeli army
On March 29, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed after a shot at a UNIFIL base in Adchit Al Qusayr. Another Indonesian peacekeeper, seriously injured in this incident, died a few weeks later.
On March 30, two other Indonesian UNIFIL soldiers were killed by an explosion that destroyed their vehicle near Bani Hayyan, and two others injured.
According to the results of a preliminary UN investigation, an Israeli tank shell was responsible for the fatal explosion of March 29, and an improvised explosive device probably planted by Hezbollah was involved in Bani Hayyan.
Two French UNIFIL soldiers were also killed in an ambush on April 18 in the Deir Kifa region. French authorities and the UN attributed the attack to Hezbollah, which denied any involvement.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, recommended on Monday to maintain UN troops in Lebanon after the departure of UNIFIL at the end of 2026, decided last August by the Security Council, under American pressure.
