UN peacekeeper from Serbia killed in south Lebanon
· Citizen
A United Nations peacekeeper died on Thursday from wounds sustained the night before when shelling hit his base in southern Lebanon, the force said.
The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of launching the mortar rounds that struck the UNIFIL position and killed the man — the seventh peacekeeper to die in Lebanon since the latest conflict erupted in March.
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“A UNIFIL peacekeeper died early this morning from critical injuries sustained when mortar shells struck his position,” a statement from the force said, adding that two others were wounded in the incident on Wednesday night.
Probe launched
It said a probe had been launched and also urged “relevant national authorities to investigate the incident”.
Serbia’s defence ministry said in a statement that “Senior Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic was given emergency medical care at a hospital inside the base after being wounded and then transported by helicopter to the University Medical Centre in Beirut, where he died”.
According to UNIFIL, around 170 Serbian peacekeepers are among the 7 500-strong force, whose personnel come from nearly 50 countries.
The Israeli military said it had “identified several launches in the area of Al-Qatrani carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation that landed inside a UNIFIL force position in the Dibbine area” overnight.
“As a result of the launches, a UN personnel member was killed, and two others were injured. An examination of the launch trajectory clearly indicates that the fire was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” it added.
Peacekeepers are deployed in south Lebanon near the Blue Line, the 120-kilometre (75-mile) de facto border between Lebanon and Israel, putting the force in the middle of the fighting.
“UNIFIL has detected an increasingly high number of trajectories and impacts in south Lebanon,” the force’s statement said, adding that “the violence must end”.
More peacekeeper deaths
In late March, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed and another later died of his wounds after a projectile hit their base, with a preliminary UN investigation blaming an Israeli tank shell.
Shortly after, two more Indonesian peacekeepers were killed by an improvised explosive device, which the same UN investigation found was likely planted by Hezbollah.
And in April, two French peacekeepers were killed in an ambush that French authorities and the UN attributed to Hezbollah, which denied involvement.
On Monday, UN chief Antonio Guterres said peacekeepers would still be needed in Lebanon after UNIFIL’s mission expires at the year’s end — a suggestion likely to face opposition from the United States and Israel.