France bids an honorable farewell to Sergeant Major Florian Montorio, who lost his life in Lebanon in an attack against a patrol of UN forces on April 18, attributed by Paris to Hezbollah. This Thursday, April 23, the day of mourning comes one day after another soldier wounded in the same ambush died in a hospital in the French capital due to the severity of his injuries.
First modification: 04/23/2026 - 16:34
Draped with the French flag, on the shoulders of six soldiers and to the sound of Frédéric Chopin's funeral march, the coffin of Sergeant Major Florian Montorio entered the Parade Ground of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment of Montauban, a city in southwestern France.
Squads of perfectly aligned uniformed men accompanied the ceremony of the French blue helmet, killed on April 18 in an ambush in southern Lebanon against a patrol of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
"In his sacrifice lies part of our identity"
In an atmosphere of absolute solemnity, the military funeral honors took place, with the review of troops and formation in a grid, while the military band played the national anthem, La Marseillaise.
The ceremony, attended by family members and civil and military authorities, was presided over by the Minister of the Armed Forces and Former Combatants, Catherine Vautrin, accompanied by the Chief of the Army Staff, General Pierre Schill.
"France will never forget what it owes to Sergeant Major Florian Montorio. It will never forget the price of his life. It will never forget it, because part of our identity lies in his sacrifice," said Minister Vautrin.
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The head of Defense awarded Montorio the posthumous medal of knight of the Legion of Honor, the best-known and most important distinction in France. Vautrin referred to the soldier as "a versatile and reliable non-commissioned officer", before ensuring that "he fell serving France until his last breath."
At the end of the military ceremony, the Montauban City Council organized a "silent march", to which the civilian population was called. A procession headed to a church in the city where a mass was celebrated in memory of the soldier. Mayor Didier Lallemand invited citizens to place themselves "along the route."
Montorio was 40 years old and the father of two daughters, ages 9 and 15. A career non-commissioned officer since 2007, he had served in numerous operations with the French Army before joining the 17th Brigade of the RGP of Montauban in 2021, a regiment historically involved in operations abroad.
The chief sergeant was deployed to Lebanon on January 20, 2026 in the French UNIFIL battalion, as a member of Operation Daman, with a four-month mandate.
Read alsoThe death of a French blue helmet in Lebanon strains the relationship between Paris and Beirut
"Blood and sacrifice"
The funeral of the sergeant stationed in Lebanon has focused the attention of public opinion in France, a day after President Emmanuel Macron announced the death of another French soldier, victim of the same ambush in southern Lebanon.
This is Major Corporal Anicet Girardin, 31, one of the three French soldiers who were injured in the attack against the UNIFIL patrol on April 18, recorded in the midst of heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The French president has suggested that "everything indicates that Hezbollah is responsible for this attack." The UN force itself has attributed the aggression "to non-state actors, presumably members of Hezbollah", although the Shiite movement has denied its involvement.
Girardin's death made the Deir-Kifa ambush the deadliest attack against French soldiers deployed in Lebanon in years.
"For France, Lebanon is a story of blood and sacrifice, a story where the name of Drakkar (a building in Beirut where a bomb killed 58 French soldiers in 1983) remains for our nation one of its deepest wounds," recalled this Thursday the Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin.
Adding to the death of the French non-commissioned officer Arnaud Frion, on March 13 in Iraqi Kurdistan, three French soldiers have already lost their lives and at least seven have been injured in the Middle East, within the framework of the war started by the US and Israel against Iran at the end of February 2026 and its regional repercussions.
The three soldiers wounded on April 18 were repatriated to France to be hospitalized in military centers such as the Percy hospital, near Paris.
Montorio's body was repatriated on April 19 from the Beirut airport, where comrades-in-arms and UNIFIL commanders paid him a first tribute by presenting medals from the UN and the Lebanese Army.
Read alsoA second French soldier from the UN mission in Lebanon dies: this is what we know
With Reuters and EFE
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