Indonesia's MPR urges UN to impose sanctions on Israel
Private First Class Rico Pramudia, an Indonesian peacekeeper serving with UNIFIL, was pronounced dead while undergoing medical treatment for serious injuries sustained from an artillery blast from an Israeli tank near Adchit Al Qusayr on March 29, 2026.
“The UN should impose sanctions on Israel, which the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the UN Secretariat have reported as the perpetrator of the attack that killed four TNI soldiers and injured four others,” MPR deputy speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid said in his statement on Monday.
According to him, Israel has clearly violated international law regarding the prohibition against attacking non-combatants and UN personnel, as stipulated in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1994 Convention on the Safety of UN Personnel.
He even considers such action to be a war crime as stipulated in the Rome Statute.
He emphasized that Indonesian soldiers who died in the Israeli attack was in Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission and had a full mandate from the UN.
“Therefore, the UN should be responsible for providing maximum protection and imposing harsh sanctions on Israel for attacking UN peacekeepers, in order to ensure justice and peace for the victims, their families and the nation,” he said.
He stated that this was not the first time an Israeli attack on a peacekeeping post manned by TNI soldiers had occurred. In 2004, a number of TNI soldiers serving as peacekeepers in Lebanon were also victims of an Israeli attack.
“At that time, there were no sanctions from the UN. As a result of that lack of sanctions, Israel was free to continue its crimes. Now, these Israeli attacks have even resulted in casualties,” he said.
Wahid fully supports the government’s move to urge the UN to conduct a thorough, transparent and accountable investigation into this case.
“We support the Foreign Ministry’s move, but we hope there will be follow-up, by imposing severe sanctions on Israel, the perpetrator of this war crime,” he said.
On the other hand, he asked the Indonesian government to evaluate the deployment of TNI soldiers in UN peacekeeping missions, especially if security is not guaranteed.
“The (Indonesia’s) Constitution not only stipulates participation in maintaining world peace, as in Lebanon, but also protects all Indonesian citizens, including TNI members of UNIFIL. Therefore, if there are no security guarantees or if criminals who kill Indonesian soldiers are not subject to strict legal sanctions, Indonesia should consider withdrawing its troops,” he emphasized.
With Pramudia’s death, Indonesia has lost four military personnel serving with UNIFIL in the past month.
Private First Class Farizal Rhomadhon was killed in an artillery attack on March 29, the same incident that injured Pramudia and placed him in intensive care.
On March 30, two personnel - Captain Inf Zulmi Aditya Iskandar and First Sergeant Muhammad Nur Ikhwan - were killed in an attack while escorting a troop convoy.
In the attacks on March 29-30 and April 3, seven other Indonesian soldiers were also injured.
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Translator: Fath Putra Mulya, Yashinta Difa