Israel army implicates Lebanon’s Hezbollah in blast that wounded UN peacekeepers

Israel’s military said Wednesday it had obtained information that indicated a Hezbollah explosive charge caused the blast that wounded UN peacekeepers in Lebanon last week.

The UN peacekeeping force said three military observers and a translator were wounded in Saturday’s blast in south Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah militants trade frequent cross-border fire.

“According to information available to the (army), the explosion that occurred on March 30… occurred after a UNIFIL patrol passed over a charge that had been previously placed by Hezbollah in the area,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

After the blast, the army said: “We did not strike in the area.”

The military observers, from Australia, Chile and Norway, and a Lebanese language assistant were on patrol near the so-called Blue Line – the UN-demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported an “enemy (Israeli) drone” raided the Rmeish area of southern Lebanon where the incident is said to have occurred.

Cross-border fire since October has killed at least 347 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 68 civilians.

The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.