France blames Hezbollah after UN peacekeeper killed in Lebanon

On April 18, France said that all indications pointed to Hezbollah being responsible for an attack in southern Lebanon that killed a French peacekeeper serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and wounded three others.

President Emmanuel Macron said on X that “everything points to Hezbollah being responsible for this attack,” urging Lebanese authorities to arrest those involved, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

The Élysée said Macron had raised the issue in calls with Lebanon’s president and prime minister, pressing Beirut to ensure the security of UN peacekeepers.

France’s armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said the soldier, identified as Staff Sergeant Florian Montorio, was killed in an “ambush” while his unit was travelling to a UNIFIL outpost. He died from a “direct gunshot wound”, she said on social media.

According to Vautrin, the patrol was attacked “at very close range by an armed group”. She added that Montorio was evacuated by fellow troops under fire, but medics were unable to resuscitate him.

The outpost the unit was heading to had reportedly been “cut off for several days due to fighting in the area”.

UNIFIL has faced repeated incidents since cross-border hostilities escalated in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in sustained exchanges of fire linked to the wider regional conflict. The UN mission operates as a buffer along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed last month in separate incidents, including one UN preliminary finding that attributed a fatality to Israeli tank fire, while two others were reportedly killed by an improvised explosive device likely planted by Hezbollah.

UNIFIL has also reported other recent incidents, including damage to its vehicles and infrastructure amid clashes in the south. In one case last week, Israeli tanks were reported to have rammed UN peacekeeping vehicles, causing damage but no injuries.

The United Nations mission, deployed for decades in southern Lebanon, is due to see its mandate expire at the end of this year.