French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday announced the death of a French soldier serving with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, blaming the Hezbollah militant group and demanding Beirut immediately arrest those responsible.
“Chief Sergeant Florian Montorio of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment from Montauban fell this morning in southern Lebanon during an attack against UNIFIL,” Macron wrote on X Saturday afternoon. “Three of his brothers-in-arms are wounded and have been evacuated.”
UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said initial assessments indicated the fire came from “non-state actors,” allegedly Hezbollah, and that it had opened an investigation into what it described as “a deliberate attack.”