News Desk

JAKARTA: An Indonesian soldier was killed and three others were injured when artillery fire hit a UN peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon, authorities said on Monday, as Israel expanded its invasion of the country’s south.

The Indonesian unit serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon in the southern Lebanese village of Adshit Al-Qusayr was targeted on Sunday evening, amid ongoing exchanges of fire between the invading Israeli forces and armed groups fighting them in the region.

The Indonesian military confirmed the soldier’s identity as Farizal Rhomadhon, a 28-year-old private first class of the army’s 25th Infantry Brigade. A native of Yogyakarta, he is survived by his wife and a 2-year-old daughter.

Armed Forces spokesperson Maj. Gen. Aulia Dwi Nasrullah told state news agency Antara that among the remaining three wounded soldiers, one “sustained serious injuries.”

The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for a “thorough and transparent investigation” and said it reiterated Indonesia’s “condemnation of Israel’s attacks in southern Lebanon and calls on all parties to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Israeli forces have been pounding Lebanon with airstrikes and a ground offensive in the south since March 2, after the armed group Hezbollah entered the US–Israeli war on Iran with a retaliatory cross-border attack following the killing of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday instructed its military to expand the invasion, in which at least 1,238 Lebanese have been killed and more than 3,500 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

UNIFIL peacekeepers have been deployed in Lebanon’s south, which borders Israel, for nearly 50 years.

Indonesia has contributed troops to UNIFIL since 2006, after the operation’s mandate was expanded by the UN Security Council following the Second Lebanon War to help the Lebanese Army keep control over the area.

As of March 2026, the force consists of some 8,200 peacekeepers from 47 troop-contributing countries, with Indonesia contributing more than 750 personnel.

Since the beginning of its latest invasion of southern Lebanon in 2024, Israeli troops have attacked peacekeeping forces multiple times. In October 2024, two Indonesian soldiers were among those wounded when Israeli tanks entered the village of Naqoura, home to UNIFIL headquarters, and fired on peacekeepers.