A UN peacekeeper passed away on Thursday due to injuries received the previous evening after an artillery attack struck his post close to Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, according to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which announced this on Thursday.
Another two peacekeepers have been hurt and are being treated at a medical center within the UNIFIL base.
The Serbian government has verified that the peacekeeper was a citizen of Serbia who received urgent medical treatment following an assault on his base. He was subsequently flown to a hospital in Beirut, where he later passed away, according to a statement from the UN peacekeeping operation.
The statement further noted that intentional assaults against peacekeeping forces constitute serious breaches of international humanitarian law and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, and could be classified as war crimes.
The assault comes after multiple comparable events in recent months, some resulting in deaths, following the start of the Iran conflict and resuming fighting between Hezbollah based in Lebanon and Israel.
"UNIFIL has observed a growing number of paths and strikes in southern Lebanon," the United Nations peacekeeping operation stated, urging an immediate halt to the hostilities.
The details surrounding the attack and who is accountable are being looked into by UNIFIL, which has had seven peacekeepers killed in Lebanon since hostilities resumed in March.
"The source of the shelling remains uncertain, yet this situation arises as hostilities escalate between the Israeli forces in south Lebanon and Hezbollah combatants outside the Lebanese armed forces," said UNIFIL.
On Wednesday, Israel and Lebanon reached an agreement to a conditional ceasefire after a fourth session of talks in Washington.
The group Hezbollah, which was excluded from the negotiations, turned down the truce proposal, as Israel restarted bombing operations in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
What is UNIFIL?
Established in 1978, UNIFIL was tasked with monitoring the departure of Israeli forces from south Lebanon after the country's incursion. Currently, approximately 7,500 peacekeeping personnel are deployed along the Blue Line, a 120-kilometer boundary area, continuing to act as a separator between Lebanon and Israel.
As per UNIFIL, personnel serving as peacekeepers hail from almost 50 nations, among them 170 individuals from Serbia.
In late March, an Indonesian blue helmet Was murdered and another person succumbed to injuries sustained when a missile struck their base. According to an initial inquiry conducted by the UN, the soldier was killed as a result of an Israeli tank round.
The next day, two additional Indonesian peacekeepers lost their lives due to an improvised explosive device. A similar United Nations inquiry concluded that Hezbollah was probably involved.
Some weeks later in April, two French peacekeepers were murdered in an attack that President Emmanuel Macron held responsible, with the United Nations linking it to Hezbollah, which rejected any connection.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized on Monday that peacekeeping efforts would remain necessary in Lebanon, despite the upcoming expiration of UNIFIL's mandate at year-end. This statement is expected to encounter resistance from the U.S. and Israel, which have consistently advocated for ending the mission.