Castle capture a 'dramatic shift' in Lebanon - Netanyahu
· RTE.ieIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push deeper into Lebanon after his military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort, calling it a "dramatic shift" in its campaign against Hezbollah.
Israeli troops have seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said, a major advance against Iran-backed Hezbollah despite a ceasefire announced more than six weeks ago.
Beaufort Castle is known locally as Qalaat al-Shaqif or Shaqif Arnoun.
In a video statement released hours after the military took Beaufort, Mr 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," he said.
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," Mr Katz said in a social media post.
The seizure comes a day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures and restrictions.
The military said the operation was focused on establishing control of the Beaufort Ridge and the Wadial-Saluki area, while degrading the Hezbollah militia and its infrastructure on the ridge established under Iranian direction.
One Israeli soldier was killed, the military said.
There were no immediate comments from Lebanon or from Hezbollah.
The capture of the medieval castle and ridge deepen Israel's footprint in Lebanon as the Israel-Hezbollah military front remains active even as a parallel ceasefire holds in the wider Iran war.
Hezbollah entered the US-Israeli war against Iran by firing rockets and drones into Israel on 2 March, days after the Iran conflict began. Israel then began to attempt driving the Iran-backed militia away from its northern border.
The advance into Beaufort Castle has granted Israeli troops an overlook point over much of southern Lebanon and northern Israel, from which attacks have been launched towards Israeli residential areas.
Hezbollah "carried out numerous attacks," from the Ridge, the Israeli military said, adding that its troops were operating against launch infrastructure in the area, from which "hundreds of projectiles were launched toward Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers".
Israeli troops were also operating near Nabatieh, a major Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, the military said.
Lebanese PM accuses Israel of 'scorched-earth policy'
Meanwhile, Lebanon's prime minister accused Israel of pursuing a "scorched-earth policy" in his country's south, urging a halt to the fighting as Israel carried out fresh airstrikes and issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen locations.
A day after Mr Netanyahu said his forces had advanced deeper into Lebanon, his counterpart Nawaf Salam warned the country was facing a "dangerous" escalation and called for "a swift and real ceasefire".
In a televised address, Mr Salam accused Israel of "pursuing a scorched-earth policy and collective punishment" by "destroying towns and villages and forcing their inhabitants into exile".
This will bring "neither security nor stability" to Israel, he said.
Still, he defended his government's engagement with its southern neighbour, after military delegations from both countries held security talks in Washington on Friday, with more US-brokered negotiations planned next week.
Mr Salam said the outcome of the negotiations was "not guaranteed" but called them "the least costly path for our country and our people".
A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah officially took effect on 17 April, but has never been observed.
Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other's alleged breaches.
A US statement issued after Friday's Israel-Lebanon talks made no mention of the truce, but said the "productive military-to-military discussions" would inform next week's political meeting.
Hezbollah vehemently opposes the direct talks.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several Israeli attacks in the south yesterday, and the Lebanese military said two of its soldiers "were seriously wounded... by a hostile Israeli drone" near the southern city of Nabatieh.
The Israeli military issued fresh evacuation warnings covering villages near Nabatieh and others in the east of the country.
Hezbollah said it launched multiple attacks targeting northern Israel and had also clashed with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the group said it was confronting Israeli forces around the outskirts of the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, adding the troops "had not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns".
The Israeli military said that more than 25 projectiles were launched from Lebanon towards Israel while air alert sirens sounded in the northern cities of Karmiel and Safed for the first time since the ceasefire, according to the army's Home Front Command.
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Public broadcaster Kan aired footage shared on social media showing rockets falling into the sea off Israel's Nahariya, near the border, sending beachgoers fleeing.
Mr Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israeli forces had advanced beyond the Litani River, which runs around 30km north of the Lebanon-Israel frontier, and were "hitting Hezbollah head on".
The Lebanese health ministry says that Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since 2 March, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.
Hezbollah said it attacked Israel in retaliation for the death of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes when the war erupted on 28 February.
Iran has insisted that any agreement to end the wider Middle East war also cover Lebanon.