UN Peacekeeper Dies After Mortar Strike on Base in Southern Lebanon

A UN peacekeeper has died from injuries sustained during a mortar attack on a peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL and Serbian officials confirmed Thursday, as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah continue.

The death increases the total number of UNIFIL personnel killed since the latest round of fighting began in March to seven.

“A UNIFIL peacekeeper died early this morning from critical injuries sustained when mortar shells struck his position,” the UN force said, noting that two other peacekeepers were also wounded in the attack on Wednesday night.

The mission said it had opened an investigation and urged “relevant national authorities to investigate the incident”.

In a separate statement, Serbia’s Defence Ministry said Senior Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic was initially treated at a hospital within the UN base before being flown by helicopter to the University Medical Centre in Beirut, where he succumbed to his injuries.

UNIFIL said approximately 170 Serbian peacekeepers are part of its 7,500-member contingent drawn from nearly 50 nations.

The force operates near the Blue Line, the 120-kilometre (75-mile) unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel, where peacekeepers have increasingly found themselves caught in the crossfire.

“UNIFIL has detected an increasingly high number of trajectories and impacts in south Lebanon,” the mission said, warning that “the violence must end”.

The incident comes months after several other deadly attacks on UN personnel. In late March, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed and another later died from wounds suffered when a projectile struck their base. A preliminary UN investigation blamed an Israeli tank shell.

The same investigation later found that an improvised explosive device that killed two more Indonesian peacekeepers was likely planted by Hezbollah.

Two French peacekeepers were also killed in an April ambush that French authorities and the UN attributed to Hezbollah, though the group rejected the accusation.

Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres argued that peacekeepers would still be needed in Lebanon after UNIFIL’s mandate expires at the end of the year, a proposal that is likely to face opposition from both the United States and Israel.

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