A French soldier has died and three others have been injured in an attack this Saturday in southern Lebanon against the UN peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL), according to French President Emmanuel Macron. “Everything points to Hezbollah being responsible for this attack. France demands that the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest the perpetrators and take responsibility,” he declared on the social network X. “The nation bows with respect and shows its support to the families of the soldiers and to all our military personnel committed to peace in the country,” said the president.
Hezbollah was quick to respond to Macron’s accusations. “We deny any involvement in the incident with the UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon and call for caution when assigning blame and making judgments,” the group stated in a communiqué published by the Lebanese channel Al Manar, affiliated with the Shia party.
Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin explained that the soldier died from a direct gunshot while on a mission to clear a route to a UN mission post, UNIFIL, which had been isolated for days due to fighting in the area. According to a later statement from the ministry she leads, the group was attacked by an armed group shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time (one hour less in mainland Spain). “In accordance with United Nations regulations, the French soldiers returned fire to withdraw and fired at the attackers,” the ministry said.
Sergeant Florian Montorioum was hit by a direct shot from a light weapon. He was immediately attended to by his comrades and the medical team present at the scene. He was then evacuated to the Deyr Kifa camp, where he died from his wounds, according to Defense. He belonged to the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment of Montauban and had been deployed in Lebanon since January 20 for a period of four months.
According to sources from the Élysée, after the attack, Macron spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and “urged them to investigate the attack, identify those responsible without delay, and do everything possible to ensure the safety of UNIFIL soldiers, who under no circumstances should be targeted.” Aoun condemned “the targeted attack against the French contingent” and assured Macron that “Lebanon will allow no leniency in judging those responsible,” according to the Lebanese presidency.
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In a statement, UNIFIL also indirectly pointed to Hezbollah as a possible perpetrator of the attack, carried out “by non-state actors” and which occurred when a patrol was clearing a road in the village of Ghanduriyah to reestablish contact with isolated positions of the UN mission.
Two French blue helmets have now died since the war broke out in the Middle East on February 28 following the joint attack by Israel and the United States against Iran. On March 12, Arnaud Frion, 43, died from a drone attack by a pro-Iranian militia in the Erbil region, in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was the first European soldier killed since the start of the military escalation.
Additionally, at the end of March, three Indonesian blue helmets died in the south of the country in two separate attacks within just two days. One died from Israeli fire and the other two from an explosion attributed to Hezbollah, according to a preliminary UN investigation. UNIFIL has about 8,200 soldiers from 47 different countries and ends its mission this year.
