Israel
seizes strategic castle in deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years
Experts
say capture is largely symbolic, but it complicates efforts to extend the
ceasefire between US and Iran
Lorenzo
Tondo in Jerusalem and agencies
Sun 31
May 2026 17.51 BST
Israeli
troops have captured a clifftop castle as they made their deepest incursion
into Lebanon in more than 26 years, further shattering a nominal US-brokered
ceasefire and complicating efforts to extend the separate truce between
Washington and Tehran.
After
days of intense fighting and airstrikes in nearby villages, the Israeli defence
minister, Israel Katz, said the military had captured Beaufort Castle, also
known as Qalaat al-Shaqif, which it had used as a base during its previous
occupation of southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000.
The
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) already controlled territory up to the Litani River
in its campaign against Hezbollah, but troops are now pushing towards the
Zahrani River, about six miles north.
The
French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, requested an emergency meeting of
the UN security council on Monday to discuss Israel’s military operations in
Lebanon, which he described as unacceptable.
“Nothing
can justify the prolongation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its
increasingly deep occupation of Lebanese territory,” he said.
Images
and footage showed Israeli and Golani Brigade flags flying over Beaufort
Castle, which overlooks much of southern Lebanon, giving it strategic
importance, as shelling echoed across the surrounding hills and plumes of smoke
rose from the area.
The IDF
said it had “launched an operation in the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi al-Saluki
area of southern Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and expand its
control of the area”.
Israeli
forces appear to be positioning themselves for a potential encirclement of
Nabatieh, a city that serves as an economic centre and a cultural heartland for
southern Lebanon.
Prof
Yagil Levy, the head of the Institute for the Study of Civil-Military Relations
at the Open University of Israel, described the latest advance as no more than
“victory of image”.
“There
was already debate in 1982 over how necessary the capture of Beaufort really
was,” he said. “It attempts to present an accomplishment within a public
discourse that increasingly assumes that Israel is not winning.
“Protests
are growing in the northern communities, criticism is emerging from within the
military over soldiers’ vulnerability to drone attacks, Hezbollah remains
intact, and there is no realistic plan for its disarmament.”
The
advance also poses a challenge to stalled negotiations between the US and Iran,
as Tehran wants any deal to include the end of fighting in Lebanon as well.
Observers have said Israeli officials and military commanders want to inflict
as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before a potential deal imposes new
limits or stops the current offensive.
The
fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing
more than 1.2 million people as a result of Israeli strikes and evacuation
orders since 2 March. A truce officially began on 17 April but has never been
observed. Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other daily of violations as
justification for their attacks.
For many
in Lebanon, Nabatieh carries a significance that extends beyond its strategic
value. Long regarded as a symbol of resistance, the city has repeatedly been on
the frontline of Israeli military campaigns and is deeply embedded in the
political and historical memory of southern Lebanon.
Israeli
forces have moved past the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Mayfadoun in recent
days and are approaching Choukine, where local people were ordered to evacuate
on Saturday amid fears of further military operations.
Taking
over Nabatieh would deal a blow to Hezbollah’s morale, said Mohanad Hage Ali, a
senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, a thinktank based in Beirut.
Addressing
fears of a virtual annexation, he said: “Given the level of destruction in the
so-called ‘yellow zone’, the range of possibilities is between denying the
return of the population, and annexation/settlement in a similar fashion to the
West Bank.
“Annexation
is no longer a wild conspiracy theory. There are ministerial statements to this
effect from Israel’s finance and national security ministers, among others.”
Lebanon’s
prime minister, Nawaf Salam, accused Israel on Saturday of “pursuing a
scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” by “destroying towns and
villages, and forcing their inhabitants into exile” in the south of the
country. He said the country was facing a “dangerous” escalation and called for
“a swift and real ceasefire”.
The
actions would bring “neither security nor stability” to Israel, he said.
Salam
defended his government’s engagement with its southern neighbour after military
delegations held security talks in Washington on Friday. More US-brokered
negotiations are planned next week.
He said
the outcome of the talks was not guaranteed, but called them “the least costly
path for our country and our people”.
The
Lebanese health ministry said eight people, including three women, had been
killed after a strike on southern Lebanon on Sunday.
Reuters
reported the Israeli military as saying one of its soldiers had been killed in
combat in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah
said earlier on Saturday that it had targeted the air traffic control unit at
the Meron base in northern Israel, a strategic surveillance and command
facility near the Lebanese border. The group also claimed responsibility for
rocket fire towards Kiryat Shmona, one of the Israeli communities most exposed
to the conflict.
Videos on
social media appeared to show beachgoers in northern Israel running for shelter
as Hezbollah rockets were launched towards the area, according to local media.
The barrage was the first fired from Lebanon towards the coastal city of
Nahariya in three weeks.
The
Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks had killed at least 3,371 people
since 2 March, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support
of Iran. The group said it had attacked Israel in retaliation for the death of
Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes when the war erupted on 28
February.
Agence
France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report
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