In the presence of French Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautran, France will hold a national tribute Thursday in Montauban to the UNIFIL soldier, First Sergeant of the 17th Regiment of the Parachute Engineers, Florian Montorio, who was killed in an ambush in the Lebanese Deir Kifa area on Saturday. It is noteworthy that the UNIFIL force deployed in Lebanon since 1978 includes more than 7,000 soldiers, including more than 600 French soldiers.
Published on: 04/23/2026 - 10:04
On Thursday, France will hold a national tribute in Montauban for the French soldier, First Sergeant of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment, Florian Montorio, who was killed on Saturday in an attack targeting the United Nations Interim Peacekeeping Force (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.
President Emmanuel Macron held Hezbollah responsible, as he said in a post on the
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For her part, French Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautran, who will preside over the national tribute, announced that soldier Montorio was killed after being hit “directly by small arms fire” in the Deir Kifa area.
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A second French UNIFIL soldier died on Wednesday from wounds he sustained in an ambush in southern Lebanon.
It is noteworthy that the UNIFIL force deployed in Lebanon since 1978 includes more than 7,000 soldiers, including more than 600 French soldiers.
First Sergeant Montourio is the second French soldier to be killed since the start of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran in late February, and extended to include countries in the Middle East.
On March 12, French soldier Arno Freon (42 years old) was killed in a drone strike attributed to an armed group loyal to Iran. Freon was stationed at a military base in the Erbil region in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, where he participated in an anti-terrorism training mission.
It is noteworthy that the killing of First Sergeant Montorio came in light of the validity of a ten-day ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, and the Hebrew state’s confirmation of the establishment of a “yellow line” in the south of the country separating the areas where its forces are deployed from other areas, similar to what it did in the Gaza Strip.
France 24/ Agencies
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