French President Emmanuel Macron accused Hezbollah of killing a French soldier in southern Lebanon, on Saturday.
The soldier, Staff Sergeant Florian Montorio, of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment in Montauban, was a member of UNIFIL, the U.N. interim force stationed in South Lebanon.
“Everything points to Hezbollah being responsible.” Macron wrote on X.
“The nation bows its head in respect and extends its support to the families of our soldiers and to all our military personnel engaged in peacekeeping in Lebanon,” the French president wrote.
He added that ‘’France demands that the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest the perpetrators and assume their responsibilities alongside UNIFIL.’’
His Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun, condemned the attack and promised to prosecute those responsible. Earlier, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had reported the attack and ordered an investigation to establish the facts.
The UN Interim Force called on Lebanon to investigate the perpetrators of the “deliberate” attack against its soldiers, reporting that they were targeted by “non-state actors,” likely Hezbollah.
“This morning, while on a mission to clear a route to a UNIFIL post that had been isolated for several days by fighting in the area, the French soldier was ambushed by an armed group at very close range,” explained French Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin.
UNIFIL’s force consists of 7,505 peacekeepers from 47 troop-contributing countries, including some 600 from France. The largest contingent is the Italian one.