French President Emmanuel Macron writes on X that a French UN soldier and three others were injured in an attack on peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
“Everything indicates that Hezbollah is behind the attack,” Macron writes, urging the Lebanese authorities to arrest the perpetrators - and Lebanese President Michel Aoun says that the government “will not hesitate to hunt down those involved and hold them accountable.”
Catherine Vautrin, the French minister responsible for the armed forces, writes that the soldier was killed in an ambush when a group of UN soldiers was heading toward one of the UNIFIL outposts. UNIFIL confirms the death, but does not directly point the finger at Hezbollah - which denies any involvement and "urges caution in drawing premature conclusions and assigning responsibility in the matter of an ongoing investigation," Hezbollah says.
Israel: Yellow Line
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military announced that it had carried out new airstrikes against "terrorists" in southern Lebanon. There is supposed to be a ceasefire, but Israel accuses Hezbollah of violating it first by approaching Israeli soldiers along the line.
Later, the Israeli military added in a statement that it had knocked out a "terrorist cell" operating near the Israeli soldiers, without specifying how many people had been killed.
Israel says it has drawn up a "yellow line," similar to a previous border demarcation in the Gaza Strip, to mark an area in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces are conducting a ground invasion. This is the first time since the ceasefire came into effect that the Israeli army has referred to such a line in Lebanon.
The Israeli military regularly refers to members of armed groups as terrorists.
Hezbollah: Not affected by the talks
The Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah has signaled that it may agree to a ceasefire if Israel does so, but has criticized the ceasefire and the Lebanese government's talks with Israel.
The fact that the Lebanese government even entered into negotiations with Israel was, according to a senior member of the group's political wing, Mahmud Qamati, "a failure, weak and submissive."
"We are the country, and we are the ones who draw up the guidelines, not those who have an official status," Qamati says.
