France blames Hezbollah for French peacekeeper's death in Lebanon

A French soldier was killed and three others wounded in an attack Saturday on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon that appeared to have been carried out by Hezbollah, French President Emmanuel Macron said, an accusation the group has denied.

The attack follows an agreement between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday for a 10-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to six weeks of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

"Everything points to Hezbollah being responsible for this attack," Macron said on X, urging Lebanese authorities to arrest the perpetrators.

But Hezbollah -- which is strongly opposed to the planned talks with Israel -- denied involvement in the attack that killed the French peacekeeper, identified as staff sergeant Florian Montorio.

"Hezbollah denies any connection to the incident that occurred with UNIFIL forces in the Ghandouriyeh-Bint Jbeil area," it said in a statement.

The group urged "caution in making judgments and assigning responsibilities" pending the results of the Lebanese army's investigation into the incident.

The fighting in Lebanon -- one of the fronts in the Middle East war -- has seen the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deployed there repeatedly targeted, by both Israeli and Hezbollah forces.

Montorio, was caught in an "ambush" as his unit headed to a UNIFIL outpost and he died from a "direct gunshot", France's armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said on X.

She said the outpost they had been heading to had been "cut off for several days by combat in the area".

The ambush was carried out "by an armed group at very close range", she said.

Vautrin added that Montorio was "picked up by his comrades under fire" but they were unable to resuscitate him.

He is the second French soldier to die since the start of the war in the Middle East, after an Iranian-designed drone killed Arnaud Frion last month in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

- Possible 'war crimes' -

The attack came as Lebanon is eyeing the first direct negotiations with Israel in decades, a move Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun insisted was not a "concession" in an apparent rebuttal of Hezbollah criticism.

But senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati on Saturday said that his group was "not concerned with the negotiations being conducted by the state", saying they were "a failure, weak, defeated... and submissive negotiations".

Aoun condemned the attack and pledged to bring those responsible to justice, while Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had ordered an investigation.

Macron's office said he held calls with Aoun and Salam to urge them to "guarantee the security of UNIFIL soldiers".

UNIFIL, in an online statement, said the peacekeepers "came under small-arms fire from non-state-actors" as they were "clearing explosive ordnance along a road in the village of Ghanduriyah" to get to the outpost.

"Tragically, one peacekeeper succumbed to his injuries and three others were injured, two of them seriously," it said.

Its initial assessment indicates the incoming fire was "allegedly Hezbollah", it said, adding that it had launched its own investigation into what "may amount to war crimes".

UNIFIL patrols in south Lebanon near the Israeli border where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since last month after the Iran-backed militant group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed last month, with a preliminary UN investigation finding one was killed by Israeli tank fire, while the two others were killed by an improvised explosive device likely planted by Hezbollah.

Other UNIFIL peacekeepers have also been wounded since the war erupted, and in April, Israeli soldiers destroyed surveillance cameras in UNIFIL's headquarters, the peacekeeping body said.

Last week, an Israeli tank twice rammed peacekeeping vehicles, causing damage but no injuries, according to UNIFIL.

United Nations peacekeepers have served as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel for decades, but their mandate concludes at the end of this year.