07:54 AM | 31 Mar 2026
UNIFIL members killed... and the Security Council meets at French request
Fady Mahouly
Agence France-Presse quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today, Monday, at ten in the morning (14:00 GMT), at the request of France, following the killing of a number of peacekeepers in Lebanon.
The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, had announced earlier that his country had requested this meeting to be held following "the serious incidents to which soldiers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were exposed" in the south of the country.
Barrow explained, in a post on the “X” platform, that Paris “condemns in the strongest terms the shooting” that on Sunday and Monday resulted in the killing of three UNIFIL members.
He added that France "also condemns the serious incidents to which the French battalion operating within UNIFIL was exposed in the Naqoura area" on Sunday.
The French Minister stressed that "these security violations and acts of intimidation against UN employees at the hands of Israeli army soldiers are unacceptable and unjustified, especially since the rules of disengagement were respected," noting that this position was communicated to the Israeli ambassador in Paris.