UNIFIL said the peacekeeper died from critical injuries sustained during Wednesday night’s attack on a base located near the border area where Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters continue to clash. The mission said an investigation had been launched and called on relevant authorities to examine the incident.

Serbia’s defense ministry identified the deceased soldier as Milovan Jovanovic, a senior sergeant who was evacuated to a medical center in Beirut after receiving emergency treatment at the base but later succumbed to his injuries.

The death raises the number of UNIFIL personnel killed since the latest round of hostilities began in March to seven. Around 170 Serbian troops serve within the 7,500-member UN force deployed along the Blue Line, the de facto border separating Lebanon and Israel.

UNIFIL said it had recorded an increasing number of projectiles and impacts across southern Lebanon and renewed calls for an end to the violence.

The peacekeeping mission has suffered multiple casualties in recent months. In March, two Indonesian peacekeepers were killed in separate incidents, while in April two French peacekeepers died in an ambush that French authorities and the UN attributed to Hezbollah, a claim the group denied.

Earlier this week, Antonio Guterres said UN peacekeepers would continue to be needed in Lebanon beyond the expiration of UNIFIL’s current mandate at the end of the year.

UNIFIL said the blast occurred on Sunday and that it had launched an investigation to determine the origin of the projectile. “We do not know the origin of the projectile,” the mission said, adding that emergency response teams were deployed.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry confirmed the fatality involved one of its nationals and said three other Indonesian peacekeepers were injured by indirect artillery fire near their position.

Jakarta condemned the incident, calling any harm to peacekeepers unacceptable, and reiterated its criticism of Israeli military actions in southern Lebanon.

Rising risks for UN forcesUNIFIL operates in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel, where clashes between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters have intensified in recent weeks.

The mission has increasingly been caught in crossfire. Earlier this month, Ghana said two of its peacekeepers were critically injured after a UN position was struck. Israel later acknowledged its tank fire had hit the site while responding to anti-tank missiles from Hezbollah.

The escalation follows Hezbollah rocket fire into Israel on March 2, which triggered a new Israeli offensive in southern Lebanon amid a wider regional conflict involving Iran.

UNIFIL urged all parties to adhere to international law and avoid actions that endanger UN personnel and facilities.