Major General Diodato Abagnara, commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), paid tribute to Florian Montorio during a ceremony at Beirut airport ahead of the repatriation of his remains to France.Montorio, 39, was killed on Sunday when a UNIFIL patrol clearing explosive ordnance came under small-arms fire near Ghanduriyah in southern Lebanon.

Three other peacekeepers were wounded, including two seriously, according to UNIFIL.“We are here to honour you,” Abagnara said during the ceremony, praising the soldier’s service and sacrifice and emphasizing that his contribution would endure through the mission’s ongoing work.

UNIFIL said the patrol had been attempting to restore access to isolated positions when it was targeted by what it described as non-state actors. The group Hezbollah has been alleged to be involved. The mission has launched an internal investigation and urged Lebanese authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible.

The ceremony was attended by senior officials including France’s ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro, and UNIFIL Chief of Staff Paul Sanzey, who highlighted France’s longstanding role in the peacekeeping mission.

France has been a key contributor to UNIFIL since its establishment in 1978, deploying troops for patrols, demining operations and support to Lebanese armed forces in the volatile south region.Montorio was posthumously awarded UN and Lebanese Army medals in recognition of his service.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters.The incident underscores ongoing risks faced by peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where tensions persist despite the absence of large-scale hostilities in recent years.

The attack took place in the province of Kahramanmaras, where Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said six of the injured were in critical condition. Authorities ruled out terrorism, describing the incident as a personal act carried out by a student.

“This was solely a personal attack carried out by one of our students, it is not a terror incident,” Ciftci told reporters.

Governor Mukerrem Unluer said the attacker, an eighth-grade pupil, entered two classrooms of younger students armed with five firearms and seven magazines, which authorities believe belonged to his former police officer father.

The suspect later killed himself during the incident, the governor added.The shooting targeted fifth-grade students, typically aged 10 to 11, and caused casualties “indiscriminately,” Unluer said.

The attack follows another school shooting a day earlier in Sanliurfa that left 16 people injured, raising concerns over school safety in a country where such incidents are rare.Officials said the suspect’s father had been detained as part of the investigation.

Turkey has relatively strict gun laws, requiring licenses and setting a minimum age of 21 for legal ownership, though firearms remain accessible, particularly among security personnel permitted to carry weapons.

Authorities said they would consider additional safety measures following the incidents but did not provide further details.

The strike, which occurred on Wednesday, targeted the Al-Salama neighborhood near a girls’ school, according to the El-Fasher Resistance Committee.

The group attributed the attack to the Sudanese army, which has been engaged in a conflict with the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023.

A medical source said the victims brought to a local hospital included six children, among them three secondary school students.

Sixteen others were wounded in the attack, including women and children, and are receiving treatment.

The strike underscores the continuing toll of the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, where fighting between the army and paramilitary forces has displaced large numbers of civilians and strained already limited medical resources.

The semiofficial Fars news agency and Nour News said the strike targeted a residential area, though the intended objective remained unclear. Neither Israel nor the United States immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed escalating threats from Washington over Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Separate airstrikes also hit Iran’s capital, Tehran, before dawn, with explosions reported across the city and the sound of fighter jets heard intermittently for hours. Iranian authorities did not immediately provide details on the targets or casualties from those strikes.

Iranian media said Sharif University of Technology in Tehran was among the sites hit, with damage reported to campus buildings and a nearby natural gas distribution facility. The university has previously faced international sanctions over alleged links to Iran’s ballistic missile program, though it was unclear what specific facilities were targeted.

In the city of Qom, south of the capital, an airstrike on a residential area killed at least five people, according to the state-run IRAN newspaper. Authorities did not specify the intended target of that strike.

Iran’s science minister said more than 30 universities across the country have been hit since the conflict began in late February, underscoring the widening scope of the bombardment. Iran has not released updated nationwide casualty figures in recent days.

The latest strikes come amid sustained attacks on military and infrastructure sites, with Iranian security forces reportedly using alternative locations as bases after repeated strikes on established facilities.

The conflict has also forced the closure of schools nationwide, with classes moved online, and disrupted key infrastructure, including energy distribution networks.

The injured personnel were part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which said the blast occurred near El Adeisse and that the injured were taken to hospital, with two reported in serious condition.

The United Nations Information Centre confirmed the nationalities of the wounded, adding that the cause of the explosion remained unknown.The incident follows a series of deadly events involving Indonesian peacekeepers in recent days.

One was killed on March 29 when a projectile exploded in southern Lebanon, with a UN security source attributing the blast to Israeli tank fire. Two others died a day later after an explosion struck a UNIFIL logistics convoy in the same region.

The bodies of the three killed peacekeepers are expected to arrive in Jakarta on Saturday, according to Indonesian military officials.

UNIFIL said the recent underscore the dangers faced by peacekeepers operating in areas affected by hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which have intensified since Lebanon became involved in the wider regional conflict in early March.

The mission reiterated calls for all parties to respect their obligations under international law to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel, including by avoiding military activity near peacekeeping positions.

“This has been a difficult week for peacekeepers working near the central part of UNIFIL’s area of operations,” the mission said in a statement.

The Israeli military said the strikes targeted what it described as militant infrastructure, including weapons depots, launch sites and command centers, adding that around 1,000 fighters had been killed during the campaign.

Lebanon’s health ministry reported that at least 1,345 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded since the fighting began, including civilians and 53 healthcare workers. The ministry said the casualties included men, women and children, though Hezbollah has not publicly disclosed its own losses.

The conflict expanded to Lebanon on March 2 after Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on Israel, which it said were in response to earlier U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel has since carried out extensive airstrikes and initiated a ground offensive, significantly intensifying the conflict along its northern front.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Hezbollah’s leadership, including chief Naim Qassem, would face severe consequences for continued attacks, particularly during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

He said Israeli forces aim to push Hezbollah fighters away from southern Lebanon, maintain security control over the Litani area and dismantle the group’s military capabilities.

The escalation has heightened concerns of a broader regional conflict, as cross-border exchanges continue and civilian casualties rise.

The United States Geological Survey said the offshore quake was followed by aftershocks reaching magnitudes of up to 5. Indonesia’s meteorology agency reported small tsunami waves of 0.3 meters in West Halmahera and 0.2 meters in Bitung.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a regional tsunami alert but lifted it about two hours later, stating that the threat had passed based on available data.Local broadcaster Metro TV reported that one person died after being struck by falling rubble in Manado, in North Sulawesi province.

Indonesian officials confirmed the casualty, saying the victim was buried under debris from a collapsed building. One additional person suffered a leg injury.Residents described scenes of panic as the quake struck, with people fleeing their homes. A Manado resident said the shaking lasted for a prolonged period, causing items to fall from shelves and cutting power in some areas, though no major structural damage was visible in her neighborhood.

Authorities reported damage to several buildings in North Sulawesi, though the full extent remained unclear. Regional officials in areas including Ternate and Tidore urged residents to prepare for possible evacuations in the immediate aftermath.

Tsunami warning agencies had cautioned that hazardous waves were possible along coastlines within 1,000 km of the epicenter, including parts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Subsequent assessments by authorities in both countries indicated no significant threat to their territories.Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 280 million people, lies along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plate interactions frequently trigger earthquakes and volcanic activity.

In recent history, the country has experienced some of the world’s deadliest seismic disasters, including the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people across multiple countries, and a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi that claimed over 4,300 lives.

Indonesia’s U.N. representative, Umar Hadi, made the request during an emergency Security Council meeting on Tuesday, urging an independent inquiry rather than relying on explanations provided by Israel.

The call comes after two separate incidents over the weekend in southern Lebanon that killed Indonesian troops serving under the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).The Indonesian foreign ministry said earlier this week that ongoing Israeli military operations in the region had placed U.N. peacekeepers at significant risk.

The deaths occurred during a period of intensified violence that also saw Lebanese journalists and medical personnel killed in Israeli strikes.One of the victims, Farizal Rhomadhon, 28, died in an attack on Sunday.

Local media reported that he is survived by his wife and child. In his hometown in Yogyakarta, relatives gathered to mourn, with family members saying his body had yet to be returned to Indonesia.

Indonesia’s initial response to the deaths drew criticism domestically, particularly on social media, where users questioned the lack of clarity regarding the cause of the incident. Authorities had initially described the event as resulting from “indirect artillery fire.”

Preliminary findings cited by U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix indicated that a roadside explosion struck a convoy carrying two Indonesian peacekeepers on Monday.

The Israeli military said its internal review found no evidence that its forces had placed explosive devices in the area or conducted operations there at the time.

Indonesia is among the largest contributors to U.N. peacekeeping missions, with more than 2,700 personnel deployed as of 2024. The country has also pledged troops for a potential U.N.-mandated multinational stabilization force in Gaza.

Fire officials said the blaze broke out around lunchtime, with many workers believed to have been inside the building, including a group gathered in a second-floor break room when the fire started.

Several people were injured after jumping from the building in an attempt to escape.

Search operations for the missing have been complicated by structural damage, with parts of the factory collapsing during the fire.

Authorities said phone data indicated the missing individuals were likely near the origin of the blaze.By around 6 p.m. local time, firefighters had contained roughly 80% of the fire, but rescue efforts were continuing amid concerns that casualties could rise.

The government of South Korea activated a centralized disaster management system following the incident, after President Lee Jae Myung ordered the mobilisation of all available resources to contain the fire and support rescue operations.

IThe factory is operated by Anjun Industrial, which manufactures engine valves and supplies major automakers including Hyundai Motor and Kia Corporation, according to information on the company’s website.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment.