Jakarta. The UN confirmed that two more Indonesian peacekeepers had died in an attack in southern Lebanon, bringing the recent death toll to three.

Indonesia is the world’s largest contributor to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). On late Sunday (March 29), an Indonesian personnel was killed after a projectile fell into a UNIFIL position close to the town of Adchit al-Qusayr in southern Lebanon. An explosion of unknown origin killed two other Indonesian peacekeepers during a convoy mission the following day.

“This morning [March 30], two Indonesian peacekeepers lost their lives in an explosion that hit the UNIFIL logistics convoy, destroying their vehicle near Bani Haiyyan, Sector East. Two more peacekeepers were injured, one seriously,” UN peace operations chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told a presser in New York Monday local time.

“The origin of this explosion has not been determined.”

UNIFIL is investigating these incidents, according to Lacroix.

“Peacekeepers must never be a target,” he said.

The March 29 attack had left one Indonesian critically wounded and two others sustaining minor injuries. 

The Jakarta Globe has reached out to the Foreign Ministry and the Indonesian military for comments on the rising death toll, including on whether there were plans to pull its blue helmets out of Lebanon. 

A day earlier, Foreign Minister Sugiono had said that Jakarta would wait for the results of the UNIFIL probe before jumping to conclusions.

“Indonesia strongly condemns this incident as well as the Israeli attacks in Southern Lebanon,” Sugiono told reporters on the margins of a Tokyo trip.

As of March 30, Indonesia had 755 UNIFIL peacekeepers, followed by Italy (754) and Spain (658), the mission data showed. 

The two consecutive days of deadly attacks occurred amid clashes between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Lebanese militants Hezbollah. Earlier this month, the group had fired on Israel in retaliation for the latter’s assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a military campaign supported by the US. Since then, Israeli forces have been battling with the Hezbollah.

The blue helmets’ deaths have drawn sharp criticisms from other countries. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that “another red line was crossed in Lebanon”.

“Attacks on UN peacekeeping missions are an unjustifiable aggression against the entire international community,” Sanchez, who has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military action, wrote in a social media post.

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