A French UNIFIL soldier handles a man-portable Mistral anti-aircraft missile to monitor violations of Lebanese airspace on July 8, 2025, at the peacekeeping forces' headquarters in Naqoura, southern Lebanon. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — A spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed to L'Orient Today on Sunday evening that the Israeli drone that had crashed in Marjayoun district's Kfar Kila was shot down by peacekeepers from the U.N. force while they were on patrol in the area.
According to a statement released by UNIFIL, earlier in the day in that same location, a drone had dropped a grenade nearby the peacekeeping patrol followed by an Israeli tank firing a shell toward them. When the patrol was once again approached by an Israeli drone, which the statement describes as having acted in an "aggressive manner" toward the peacekeepers, the force "neutralized" the aircraft.
The Israeli army announced on Monday morning that the drone shot down by the UNIFIL peacekeepers was an surveillance drone carrying out "routine intelligence gathering and reconnaissance activity."
"A preliminary investigation has revealed that UNIFIL troops stationed nearby deliberately fired at the drone, despite it posing no threat," the statement, published on the X account of the army's Arabic-language spokesperson. "After the drone was shot down, [Israeli army] troops threw a hand grenade at the area where the drone was shot down. We confirm that no shots were fired at UNIFIL troops."
UNIFIL said that such actions by the Israeli army violated both U.N. Resolution 1701 and Lebanon's sovereignty. On Sept. 24, an Israeli drone crashed into UNIFIL headquarters and on Oct. 12, a peacekeeper was wounded by a grenade dropped on a patrol by an Israeli drone.
According to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region, the battalion in question was reportedly the French one, but UNIFIL would not confirm this.
This is a particularly rare move on the part of the peacekeepers. The last known incident was on Oct. 17, 2024, during the open war between Hezbollah and Israel, when a German navy vessel participating in UNIFIL shot down a drone off the Lebanese coast.
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