Netanyahu says capturing Beaufort “dramatic shift” in Lebanon

‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push deeper into Lebanon after his military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort on Sunday, calling it a "dramatic shift" in the campaign against Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed group said on Sunday it targeted ‘Israeli’ army positions and infrastructure in Shlomi and Nahariya in northern ‘Israel’, while air raid sirens blared in the Acre area.

Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets towards ‘Israel’ in retaliation for the US-‘Israeli’ killing of Iran's supreme leader.

A truce to halt the fighting between ‘Israel’ and Hezbollah began on April 17, but has never been observed.

Both sides accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other's alleged breaches.

As fighting escalated in Lebanon, France said on Sunday it requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, alarmed by ‘Israel's’ "ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory".

‘Israeli’ forces used the Beaufort castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.

In a video statement released hours after the military took Beaufort, Netanyahu said "we have returned united, determined and stronger than ever".

"Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold in places that were under Hezbollah's control. The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading."

Shelling was audible and smoke rose from the surrounding area as AFP saw the ‘Israeli’ flag above the castle.

‘Israeli’ Defence Minister Israel Katz said troops had captured the historic strongpoint, which commands sweeping views of south Lebanon, as they expanded their ground operations.

"Forty-four years after the heroic Battle of Beaufort, and on this day commemorating the soldiers who fell in the First Lebanon War (1982), our troops have returned to the summit of Beaufort and once again raised the Israeli flag there," Katz said in a social media post.
The push to Beaufort came as the ‘Israeli’ military issued a sweeping evacuation order to areas south of the Zahrani River, north of the Litani and around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border.

It said it was targeting "Hezbollah infrastructure in Tyre and several additional areas in southern Lebanon" as Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a series of strikes on the area.

An ‘Israeli’ strike near a hospital in Tyre wounded 13 staffers, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had accused ‘Israel’ on Saturday of pursuing a "scorched-earth policy and collective punishment" in the south, urging a halt to the fighting.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Sunday that "nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory".

Military delegations from Lebanon and ‘Israel’ held security talks in Washington on Friday, with more US-brokered negotiations planned next week.

The ‘Israeli’ army said Sunday that one of its soldiers had been killed a day earlier by a Hezbollah explosive drone, bringing to 25 the number of ‘Israeli’ military deaths in Lebanon since early March.

The Lebanese health ministry says ‘Israeli’ attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since early March.