Following an explosion near their vehicle near Lebanon’s southern border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging gunfire almost every day, three UN troops were reported to have sustained minor injuries on Sunday, according to the UN.
Since the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7 that started the Gaza conflict, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and the Israeli army have engaged in cross-border gunfire in support of Hamas, the group’s ally.
“Earlier today, three peacekeepers on patrol were lightly injured when an explosion occurred near their clearly marked UN vehicle in the vicinity of Yarine, in south Lebanon,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement.
“All peacekeepers in the patrol returned safely to their base. We are looking into the incident,” it added.
About one kilometer (0.6 miles) from Yarine, near the town of Dhayra, “Israeli enemy warplanes” bombed, “resulting in injuries,” according to a report released earlier on Sunday by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The explosion that injured the troops was most likely a close airstrike, but it was “not a direct hit,” a UNIFIL source told AFP.
Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told AFP earlier in August that UNIFIL was “the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah,” making it “more important than ever” in light of the ongoing cross-border clashes.
An ongoing Lebanese army inquiry, according to a court source in April who spoke to AFP, revealed that three UN military observers and a translator had been injured by a landmine the month prior, while Israel had suspected Hezbollah.
The UN Security Council is expected to extend UNIFIL’s mandate, which is slated to expire at the end of the month, by an additional year.
An AFP tally shows that 582 people have died in Lebanon as a result of cross-border violence, largely Hezbollah combatants but also at least 128 civilians.
According to army data, there have been 22 soldiers and 26 civilians killed on the Israeli side, including in the occupied Golan Heights.
