JAKARTA: Indonesians paid tribute on Saturday to three of their soldiers killed in attacks in southern Lebanon, as three more members of the country’s peacekeeping mission were injured amid Israel’s escalating offensive in the region.
Maj. Zulmi Aditya Iskandar, Chief Sgt. Mohammad Nur Ichwan and Cpl. Farizal Rhomadhon were part of the Indonesian unit serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
They were targeted in separate attacks near the Lebanese villages of Adshit Al-Qusayr and Bani Haiyyan on March 29 and 30 amid exchanges of fire between the invading Israeli forces and armed groups fighting them in southern Lebanon.
A memorial service, attended by the grieving families and President Prabowo Subianto, was held in Jakarta on Saturday evening following the return of the bodies of the fallen soldiers, before they were flown to their respective hometowns for burial.
“We hope and pray that the souls of these fallen heroes will be accepted by the Almighty God and that the family will be given health and patience to face this tragedy,” Foreign Minister Sugiono told reporters after the ceremony.
Israeli forces have been pounding Lebanon with airstrikes and a ground offensive in the south since March 2, after Hezbollah entered the US–Israeli war on Iran with a retaliatory cross-border attack following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his military to expand the invasion, in which at least 1,368 Lebanese have been killed and more than 4,000 injured, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
As Israel continued attacking southern Lebanon, a blast that occurred in the border town of Odaisseh on Friday wounded three Indonesian soldiers, marking the “third serious incident” involving the peacekeeping unit in less than a week.
“This incident occurred amid Israel’s ongoing incursion into Lebanon. Israel’s continuing military operations in southern Lebanon, including stated intentions to maintain a presence, risk further destabilizing the situation and placing UN peacekeepers in sustained danger,” the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Indonesia further calls for an immediate, thorough and transparent investigation to establish the facts, including the circumstances and those responsible, and stresses that full accountability must follow.”
UNIFIL peacekeepers have been deployed in Lebanon’s south, which borders Israel, for almost 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.
Israeli troops have attacked peacekeeping forces multiple times since their 2024 invasion of southern Lebanon. In October of that year, two Indonesian soldiers were among those wounded when Israeli tanks entered the village of Naqoura, home to UNIFIL headquarters, and fired on peacekeepers.
“This is clearly not an accident, nor a collateral damage. This is Netanyahu’s regime showing, once again, that they don’t care about international law, about UN personnel, and about the lives of those who dedicate themselves to peace,” Anies Baswedan, the former education minister and governor of Jakarta, said in a statement earlier this week.
“Do not let this death be forgotten in a news cycle. Do not let this become just another statistic in a long list of violations. Demand justice. Demand accountability. Make clear that those who attack UN peacekeepers will face real consequences.”
