UNIFIL, Lebanon, Somalia & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (4 June 2026) | United Nations

Description

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. Highlights: United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon Lebanon Occupied Palestinian Territory Somalia Security Council/Syria Ebola Cuba Food Security International Day UN INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON As you know, we have some pretty unpleasant news coming from Lebanon, where another one of our UN peacekeepers was killed. Sergeant Milovan Jovanović of Serbia’s 27th Mechanized Battalion, died early this morning from critical injuries sustained when a mortar shell hit his position near Marjayoun, in southern Lebanon. The Secretary-General condemns the killing of our peacekeeping colleague. He expresses his deepest condolences to the family, to the friends, and colleagues of the peacekeeper who died, and to the Government and people of the Republic of Serbia. Sergeant Milovan Jovanović would have turned 37 on the 6th of June. He was a son, he was a husband, and a father to a son and a daughter. This was his first peacekeeping deployment. He arrived in Lebanon at the end of January of this year and he died while fulfilling his duty in the service of peace under the blue flag of the United Nations. Meanwhile, despite all of this, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) continues to monitor the situation in the south of the country and carry out their mandated tasks despite the ongoing challenging security environment. Yesterday, UNIFIL detected 69 violations of Lebanese airspace across both sectors. Peacekeepers reported approximately 25 airstrikes by IDF jets and two rocket attacks by an IDF helicopter. Additionally, peacekeepers reported approximately 569 trajectories of projectiles fired from IDF positions south of the Blue Line and within the mission’s area of operations. A further 14 launches were detected from north to south, presumably by Hizbullah, including one crossing the Blue Line. Separately, two UNIFIL positions near Blat in Sector East were struck by munition ricochets, causing property damage. Just going back to the in