LONDON — United Nations peacekeepers working in southern Lebanon have been fired upon round 20 occasions because the resumption this month of hostilities there between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, a spokesperson for the power advised ABC Information.
Round 7,500 personnel from 48 international locations make up the U.N. Interim Drive in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission, tasked with monitoring the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in help of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
UNIFIL peacekeepers have recurrently been caught within the crossfire between the warring sides in recent times, with intense bouts of violence in southern Lebanon touched off by the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Iranian-backed Hamas militants into southern Israel and the following warfare in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which Hezbollah joined in help of Hamas.
Restricted respite secured by a November 2024 ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah has now given option to one other spherical of battle, sparked by the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran in late February. Hezbollah joined the battle on March 2, firing projectiles into northern Israel, seemingly in help of their patrons in Tehran.
A United Nations Interim Drive in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy drives close to the southern Lebanese metropolis of Tyre on March 23, 2026.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem mentioned the assaults have been a response to Israeli “transgressions” because the signing of the 2024 ceasefire, which he described as “extreme.”
The Israel Protection Forces mentioned this week that the group had fired over 2,000 rockets and drones towards northern Israel through the battle up to now. A 27-year-old Israeli lady was killed by a Hezbollah rocket on Tuesday.
Greater than 1 million individuals in Lebanon have been displaced by Israel’s offensive and evacuation orders, in keeping with U.N. information. Greater than 1,000 individuals have been killed by Israeli assaults in Lebanon within the newest spherical of preventing, the nation’s well being ministry mentioned.
Peacekeepers at the moment are again within the line of fireside from either side. Of the roughly 20 firing incidents up to now recorded since Feb. 28, UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel advised ABC Information {that a} preliminary rely discovered that round 60% have been of unknown origin, 25% have been attributed to the IDF and 15% to non-state actors on the Lebanese facet — “most probably” Hezbollah.
4 UNIFIL peacekeepers have up to now been injured in two separate incidents, Ardiel mentioned. Three of the accidents have been minor and one was extreme. The peacekeeper who sustained extreme accidents is now in a secure situation, she mentioned.
UNIFIL has not but established accountability for the incidents that prompted casualties, Ardiel added.
Nonetheless, the IDF has acknowledged accountability for one incident, when it mentioned that on March 6 an Israeli tank mistakenly fired on a UNIFIL place, wounding Ghanaian peacekeepers.
Hezbollah is just not recognized to have claimed accountability for any latest assaults on UNIFIL forces.
Civil defence forces try and extinguish a blaze that erupted after Israeli bombardment on a photo voltaic farm and electrical energy technology facility in Lebanon’s southern coastal metropolis of Tyre on March 4, 2026.
Kawnat Haju/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Ardiel credited UNIFIL’s safety measures for the comparatively low variety of casualties up to now.
Even the power’s headquarters within the coastal metropolis of Naqoura, she mentioned, “has been hit with bullets, shrapnel, fragments of intercepted projectiles.” On Monday, the headquarters was additionally struck by “a rocket fired by a non-state actor — possible Hezbollah,” Ardiel mentioned.
UNIFIL was first deployed to Lebanon in 1978, tasked with monitoring the ceasefire that ended an Israeli incursion into the south of the nation.
Since 2006, UNIFIL has been tasked with monitoring the cessation of cross-border hostilities following a significant battle between the IDF and Hezbollah and supporting the deliberate — however finally unrealized — Hezbollah withdrawal from the world and the redeployment of the LAF instead. That plan was set out by U.N. Safety Council decision 1701.
The U.S.-brokered 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah restated UNIFIL’s function in supporting the LAF’s disarmament of all non-state armed teams — prime amongst them Hezbollah — south of the Litani River. The LAF claimed to have achieved the primary part of this plan in January, however Hezbollah’s each day hearth towards Israel appears to undercut these claims.
Israeli forces retained management of 5 positions on Lebanese territory and continued strikes towards alleged Hezbollah targets all throughout Lebanon regardless of the ceasefire deal. Hezbollah was vocally important of the continued Israeli presence and assaults however didn’t retaliate.
The resumption of hostilities earlier this month prompted a significant new Israeli marketing campaign. Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz mentioned he instructed the IDF to “speed up the destruction of Lebanese properties within the line of contact villages, to thwart threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the mannequin of Beit Hanoun and Rafah,” referring to Israel’s destruction of Gaza cities throughout operations towards Hamas.
Katz despatched 1000’s of further troops into southern Lebanon, vowing to grab the territory as much as the Litani River to create what he referred to as a “defensive buffer.” The hassle included the destruction of a number of bridges alongside the Litani, which Katz claimed have been being utilized by Hezbollah.
{A photograph} taken from the southern Lebanese space of Marjeyoun reveals trails of rockets fired from Lebanon in direction of Israel on March 24, 2026.
-/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Ardiel mentioned the destruction of these bridges — which she described as “important arteries” — would complicate UNIFIL and LAF efforts within the space.
“Whereas peacekeepers are well-prepared and equipped and might proceed each day actions, we depend on these arteries for important logistical actions, together with troop rotations,” Ardiel mentioned, urging all actors to keep away from hurt to civilians and harm to civilian infrastructure.
UNIFIL troops, she added, have facilitated the secure motion of round 100 civilians from harmful areas.
UNIFIL peacekeepers stay in all their positions, Ardiel mentioned, however, “as a result of unstable and harmful safety state of affairs, our actions are closely restricted. We’re now not conducting patrols in the best way we used to, so our monitoring is extra restricted than it was earlier than.”
“Our patrols at the moment are targeted on areas round our positions, to make sure our peacekeepers are secure and discourage armed teams from utilizing our positions as cowl for his or her actions,” she added.
