French troops serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) shot down an Israeli surveillance drone on Sunday near the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila, prompting a rapid and dangerous chain of events that saw Israeli forces drop a grenade and fire a tank round toward the peacekeepers’ position.
According to Le Figaro, a diplomatic source confirmed that “the decision to shoot down an Israeli drone in southern Lebanon was French.”
UNIFIL said the drone had “flown aggressively over one of its patrols”, prompting soldiers to take “necessary defensive countermeasures to neutralise the drone.” The troops involved were French, part of the roughly 700-strong French contingent operating with UNIFIL in southern Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged losing one of its drones, saying in a statement that “an initial inquiry suggests that UNIFIL forces deliberately fired at the drone and downed it.”
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the aircraft’s activities “did not pose a threat to UNIFIL forces” and confirmed that Israeli troops dropped a grenade near the crash site, but maintained that “no fire was directed at UNIFIL.”
UNIFIL’s account differed sharply. The UN mission said a second Israeli drone dropped a grenade close to the same patrol, followed shortly by “an Israeli tank firing in the direction of the peacekeepers.”
No injuries were reported, but the United Nations called the incident “deeply concerning” and said it had raised the matter with Israel through established coordination channels. France’s foreign ministry also described the events as “dangerous and unacceptable.”
French forces, who last came under direct threat in southern Lebanon in 2022, are among the largest European contributors to UNIFIL.
Don’t worry I’m sure the Don will claim to have ended it by the end of the week. Judging by how Israeli TV is mocking Trump of late it seems he might have a little more trouble keeping them on a leash than he thinks however as events in Gaza are indicating too.
This isn’t the first Israeli drone strike near UN forces, just the first time that UNFIL has shot back.
Morning Mark. And about time they shot back .My wife is Jewish on her mothers side(and Irish from her Dad! 🙂 ) and if a line in the sand was drawn we were always on the side of Israel, but Netanyahu is a trigger happy nutcase that has done more to harm the cause of Israel than any Israeli Prime Minister since the country was founded. I have no problem hammering the terrorists of Hamas but Netanyahu needs to be reined in before this whole scenario ex[plodes out of hand!
Cheers from Durban
It’s far from the first time that the IDF have had ago at UN forces, either harassing or direct fire (both in the border wars and just “normal” events), they’ve been had the Irish force under constant surveillance and had a few incidents with them as well even though the Irish forces have been carrying out their mandated duties. Agree with Netanyahu, the man will do anything to stay in power, and more than happy to damage Israel’s long term relations just for himself.
Shot back? The French shot first! They were overflown by a drone they thought shouldn’t be there, but despite the fact the French claim it was being flown aggressively (whatever that means), nobody claimed the Israelis were shooting at UNIFIL until the French shot down the drone. Then the Israelis fired a couple of shots across the bows.
This illustrates one of the problems with drones. Had it been a manned plane, the pilot would not have been that close to the troops, and the French would not have decided to shoot down a manned plane as that would have clearly been an act of war. Surveillance drones, on the other hand, seem to be thought of as fair game even by participants who are not at war.
The role of UN Peacekeepers is conflict prevention, and as frustrating as that sometimes is, this didn’t seem very preventative to me on the face of it. In theory peacekeepers can only use force in self-defense or in defense of their mandate, after being attacked. To me it all comes down to what is meant by flying aggressively, but drones definitely seem to be lowering the bar.
Interesting you forget to mention Israel is not supposed to be in Lebanese skies in the first place.
This is not the first time Israel shoots at UN troops in Lebanon, been there done that plenty of times before.
Huh? What did you think I meant by the words “a drone they thought shouldn’t be there”?
There is a lot of the situation we don’t know, the French are a professional army and don’t go around shooting things out of the sky just because they can. I can’t speculate as to why they shot the drone down or why they felt threatened, but I’m betting it’s a little more nuanced than it just came into range.
I agree about the nuance, but the French aren’t being particularly welcomed at the moment. Senegal, Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso: all countries the French miltary have been thrown out of in the last three years. The French withdrawal from Ivory Coast was described as mutually agreed, so let’s not call that one being thrown out. Is seven countries in three years grounds to question how professionally they’ve been acting recently?
clearly you have a beef with France, but you conflate things. Lebanon has nothing to do with Africa, besides it is a UN mission.
secondly let me remind you that France went to Sahel upon request from thoxe countries. Since then there has been a wave of military coups in which anti-west dictators took power. these are pro-Russian regimes and have asked France to leave, whicn France did. It has nothing to do with the lack of french military professionalism you suggest. in fact US troops have also been asked to vacate those regions.
please stop trolling and remain on topic
100% agree Steve
There have been other incidents from Israeli drones harassing and attacking UNFIL patrols with stun grenades and such to try and stop them carrying out patrols or helping LAF or Lebanese civilians on the Lebanese side of the Blue Line, perhaps the French ROE’s are more proactive in protecting their units than the other UNFIL forces.
As I said however UNFIL patrols have come under attack from Israeli Drones before, those times there were protests from UNFIL to the IDF that changed nothing, clearly the French decided a more direct approach was needed, or that they weren’t going to allow their units to be attacked like the other UNFIL patrols. It’s not the first time the IDF have pushed things and had UN forces push back.
Sounds like the french started this fight. Israel should demand compensation for the drone
French troops attacked by the IDF. Shouldn’t the full force of NATO be brought to bear on defending them?😳