A United Nations peacekeeper in southern Lebanon was fatally shot on Wednesday night when the armored vehicle carrying him was hit by bullets during an incident under investigation.
The peacekeepers, part of the United Nations mission deployed along Lebanon’s border with Israel, were not on patrol at the time of the incident, which occurred outside their area of operations to the south.
Pvt. Seán Rooney, a member of the Irish battalion, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Seven other peacekeepers accompanied him from southern Lebanon to Beirut. Another peacekeeper is in serious condition and two others have minor injuries.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978. Its mission is to extend to patrol the border after the 2006 war between Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, and Israel.
The United Nations force said in a statement: “For now, details are scant and contradictory. It is investigating the murder in coordination with the Lebanese Army.
More than 10,000 UN peacekeepers from 48 countries patrol and help maintain peace along the 75-mile border between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.
The blue line is the boundary established by the United Nations to confirm Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, ending 15 years of occupation of southern Lebanon.
The border between the two nations, which is still in a state of war, remains unresolved and disputed, making the region a tense, sometimes dangerous, and occasionally flare-up of conflict.
The area is lined with minefields and barbed wire fences and is monitored by drones with the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah on one side and Israel on the other.
Andrea Tenenti, Unifil spokeswoman, said: “We are on a peacekeeping mission and the peacekeeping mission is essentially in an area surrounded by instability and instability. is fine. “But for the past few months, the situation in southern Lebanon has been peaceful and we haven’t had any incidents.”
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Private Rooney’s murder was the first since 2015 when a Spanish peacekeeper was arrested. was killed by Israeli fire during clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
Since 1978, 335 Unifil peacekeepers have died or perished while deployed in Lebanon, including from natural causes.
South Lebanon is a stronghold of Hezbollah, but a spokesman for the group said it had nothing to do with the incident.
The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the attack, said the incident involved local villagers and one of Unifil’s two peacekeeping vehicles. He said the UN vehicle left the main highway while heading north and entered the village of Al-Aqbiya, south of the coastal city of Sidon, around midnight.
Spokesperson said (Al-Aqbiya is outside their patrol area). As the vehicle attracted a larger crowd, tensions increased and some residents started bumping into the vehicle, he said.
He said the car hit two people, injuring them and taking them to the hospital.
After the collision, a man opened fire on the vehicle, killing the peacekeeper.
“Let’s wait for the end of the investigation because there are too many sensitive points and it is better to have a correct understanding of the events and the causes that led to the incident,” Tenenti said in response to Hezbollah’s account.
Lebanese officials condemned the attack and urged a thorough investigation into the incident.
Lebanon’s Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi, wrote Thursday on Twitter: “Aggression against members of the peacekeeping force would not have happened without accountability.
“Keeping them safe is a mission based on our absolute belief in the importance of implementing international resolutions,” he wrote on Twitter.
Hwaida Saad Reporting contributions from Beirut
