BEIRUT/JERUSALEM - A peacekeeper from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was killed and another injured when a projectile exploded at a UNIFIL position near a southern Lebanese village, UNIFIL said in a statement early Monday.

The injured was transferred to a hospital and remains in critical condition, the UN mission said.

The origin of the projectile is currently unknown, and UNIFIL has launched an investigation to determine the circumstances of the incident.

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UNIFIL extended condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the fallen peacekeeper, and urged all parties to uphold their obligations under international law and ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property.

The mission stressed that deliberate attacks on peacekeepers are grave violations of international humanitarian law and the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and may amount to war crimes.

"Too many lives have been lost on both sides of the Blue Line in this conflict," said the statement, referring to the UN-demarcated line between Lebanon and Israel established in 2000 for peacekeeping purposes. "There is no military solution. The violence must end."

Cross-border fighting has continued along the Lebanon-Israel border since early March, when Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire for the first time since a truce agreed in November 2024.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military on Sunday to widen what Israel refers to as a "security buffer zone" in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces expanded their ground offensive.

"We are determined to change the situation in the north fundamentally," Netanyahu said in a video statement from the Northern Command base near the Lebanese border.

Israel uses the term to describe an area seized by its troops inside Lebanese territory, a designation not recognized internationally or by Lebanon.

Since fighting with Hezbollah began in October 2023, Israel has established at least five positions in southern Lebanon. It has not withdrawn from them even after a ceasefire was announced in November 2024. After hostilities resumed in early March amid the war with Iran, Israeli ground forces entered southern Lebanon and have been advancing toward the Litani River.

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Netanyahu said the move was part of a broader effort to establish three "buffer zones" around Israel: in Syria, where Israeli forces have seized territory from the top of Mount Hermon to the Yarmouk; in Gaza, where, he said, troops have converted "more than half" of the Palestinian enclave into a "buffer zone"; and in Lebanon, where he said he had instructed to expand the existing zone to thwart infiltration by Hezbollah.

All three are not internationally recognized.

"I said we will change the face of the Middle East, and we did," he said. "We initiate; we attack."

A total of 49 people were killed and 116 injured on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 1,238 and the number of wounded to 3,543 since the escalation of hostilities on March 2, Lebanon's Disaster Risk Management Unit at the prime minister's office said.

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In its daily report on Sunday, the unit said the number of hostile incidents recorded so far has reached 4,401, with 663 shelters across the country housing 136,147 displaced people and 35,170 families.