Release of UN Peacekeeper’s Killer Stirs Heated Debate in Lebanon

A member of the mine clearance team is pictured behind a UN flag during a tour by France's defense minister of the French contingent's United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Kifa on November 2, 2023. (AFP)
A member of the mine clearance team is pictured behind a UN flag during a tour by France's defense minister of the French contingent's United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Kifa on November 2, 2023. (AFP)
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Release of UN Peacekeeper’s Killer Stirs Heated Debate in Lebanon

A member of the mine clearance team is pictured behind a UN flag during a tour by France's defense minister of the French contingent's United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Kifa on November 2, 2023. (AFP)
A member of the mine clearance team is pictured behind a UN flag during a tour by France's defense minister of the French contingent's United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Kifa on November 2, 2023. (AFP)

The Lebanese military tribunal’s decision to release on bail on Wednesday the killer of a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeper has stirred debate in the country.

In June, the tribunal charged Mohamad Ayyad and four others with the killing of Pvt. Seán Rooney, 24, of Newtown Cunningham, Ireland, following a half-year probe. Rooney was killed on Dec. 14, 2022. Ayyad was detained in December 2022.

The four others facing charges — Ali Khalifeh, Ali Salman, Hussein Salman, and Mustafa Salman — remain at large. All five are allegedly linked with Hezbollah. Hezbollah has repeatedly denied any role in the killing.

The development comes as UNIFIL monitors ongoing clashes along the border between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.

Political and legal circles in Lebanon charged that Hezbollah had pressured the tribunal to release Ayyad.

A prominent source at the court stressed that the decision wasn't politically motivated, explaining that he was released for health reasons and the jail could not meet the expenses for his treatment.

Two Lebanese officials confirmed that Ayyad was released on bail, which one of them said was in an amount of 1.2 billion Lebanese pounds (approximately $13,377).

The official said Ayyad had cancer and his lawyer had provided the necessary medical documents, adding that the trial is still ongoing and that Ayyad would go to jail should he be convicted and sentenced.

The source clarified that the court had previously released other prisoners for similar health and humanitarian reasons because prison authorities cannot put their lives in danger by keeping them detained and deprived of the needed treatment.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Asharq Al-Awsat that the court had informed the peacekeeping force that Ayyad was being released due to his “deteriorating health.”

He will still make a court appearance on December 15.

Tenenti stressed that UNIFIL will continue to demand that Rooney’s killers be brought to justice. The murder, he added, is a crime according to international and Lebanese law.

A source from the opposition expressed concern that Ayyad’s release will have “negative repercussions on the Lebanese state’s credibility in punishing people who assault the UN forces.”

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the release won’t impact UNIFIL’s mission, but it will be open to various interpretations.

It may give the impression that the state gives cover to anyone who attacks UNIFIL or that it may create justifications to undermine attacks against it, he added.



Israeli Fire Kills at Least 44 People in Gaza, Hits Police Station

A Palestinian man throws water on a fire, as he inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian man throws water on a fire, as he inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Israeli Fire Kills at Least 44 People in Gaza, Hits Police Station

A Palestinian man throws water on a fire, as he inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian man throws water on a fire, as he inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

An Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, local health authorities said, and Israel's military said it had struck a command center of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad groups.
Medics said two Israeli missiles hit the police station, located near a market, which led to the wounding of dozens of people in addition to the 10 deaths. The identities of those killed were not immediately clear.
The Israeli military said in a statement apparently referring to the same incident, that it attacked a command and control center operated by Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad groups in Jabalia, which militants used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces.
It accused Palestinian militant groups of exploiting civilians and civil properties for military purposes, an allegation Hamas and other factions deny.
Local health authorities said Israeli strikes have killed at least 34 other people in separate airstrikes across the enclave, bringing Thursday's death toll to 44, Reuters reported.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City had become non-operational, a day after an Israeli strike hit the upper part of the building, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the facility's solar power panel system.
No one was killed. There was no Israeli comment on the incident.
Gaza's health system has been devastated by Israel's 18-month-old military campaign, launched in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory's hospitals out of action, killing medics, and reducing crucial supplies.
Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.