Thousands of people protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta following the deaths of three Indonesian soldiers serving in the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, with demonstrators condemning Israel, the Jakarta Globe reported on April 6.

The soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in southern Lebanon that occurred within 24 hours of each other on March 29 and 30 in attacks attributed to Israel amid its escalating conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Indonesia contributes over 2,700 personnel to U.N. peacekeeping missions, which is significantly more than most other countries, and roughly 1,000 troops to UNIFIL. At the same time, Jakarta has been positioning itself to assume a greater mediation role in Gaza via the Board of Peace, including a plan to deploy up to 8,000 peacekeepers for that separate mission.