BEIRUT: The Lebanese army has arrested six people after gunmen attacked UN peacekeepers patrolling in the south of the country, the military said Saturday.
The UN force, known as UNIFIL, had reported that six men riding on three mopeds opened fire on a patrol vehicle Thursday without hurting anyone.
Saturday’s statement said the army’s intelligence directorate had followed up on the attack and arrested six Lebanese suspects.
The army said it would not tolerate attacks on UNIFIL, which it said carries out an important stabilising role south of the Litani river, near the Israeli border.
UNIFIL peacekeepers have been tasked with acting as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon since March 1978, and with monitoring the November 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
The truce was supposed to see Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon and refrain from attacks while the Iran-backed group is disarmed.
But Hezbollah is resisting those efforts, and in recent weeks Israel has stepped up its ongoing strikes, accusing the group of trying to build its forces.
UNIFIL has also recently complained of Israeli forces firing at or near its peacekeepers.
On Wednesday, direct discussions were held for the first time in decades between Israeli and Lebanese civilian officials under the auspices of a ceasefire monitoring mechanism.