{"id":48734,"date":"2026-06-01T08:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=48734"},"modified":"2026-06-01T08:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:24:20","slug":"israel-seizes-castle-in-lebanon-as-it-expands-ground-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/israel-seizes-castle-in-lebanon-as-it-expands-ground-offensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel seizes castle in Lebanon as it expands ground offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BBC: The Israeli military has captured the strategic site of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “decisive shift” in its offensive against Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

It comes as ground troops move ever deeper into Lebanese territory beyond their original demarcation line of the Litani river.<\/p>\n

The UK, France and Germany criticised Israel’s latest escalation, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned more residents to evacuate from a larger swathe of southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s prime minister has accused Israel of carrying out “collective punishment”.<\/p>\n

The latest evacuation warning is the second time in recent days that Israel has told residents to leave the entire south of Lebanon below the Zahrani river.<\/p>\n

“Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, facilities or means of combat endangers their life,” an IDF spokesman said.<\/p>\n

The spokesman said a “significant number of IDF ground soldiers” were involved in the operation, which was “currently expanding to additional areas”.<\/p>\n

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper joined European allies on Sunday in calling for Israel and Hezbollah to stop the escalating conflict.<\/p>\n

“Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon has killed and displaced civilians, destroyed infrastructure, and eroded space for diplomacy,” Cooper wrote on X. “It must end.” Hezbollah “must end attacks on Israel and disarm,” she added.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam made a televised address in which he accused Israel of a “scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” in the south of the country.<\/p>\n

France, which has historical ties with Lebanon, has requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the Israeli military operations.<\/p>\n

President Emmanuel Macron said on X “it is urgent that the weapons fall silent – all of them, and for good”. “Nothing justifies the major escalation currently under way in southern Lebanon,” he added.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot told French network BFMTV the situation was a “major mistake for Israel”.<\/p>\n

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the Israeli army’s advance further into southern Lebanon was a “cause for serious concern”.<\/p>\n

“Any further escalation will exacerbate the already tense situation and trigger new waves of displacement within Lebanon,” he added in a statement.<\/p>\n

Perched over the Litani valley, Beaufort Castle has been key to controlling the region around it since the Crusaders built it some 900 years ago. The Israeli army captured it 44 years ago in what’s known in Israel as the First Lebanon War.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday following its capture, Netanyahu said it was “a decisive stage and decisive shift in our policy”.<\/p>\n

“We have broken the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative, we are operating on all fronts – in Syria, in Gaza, in Lebanon,” he said.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu added that his aim was to “deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah’s control”.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Israel Katz recalled the battle 44 years ago against the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – one of the first of the Lebanon war. He said the Golani Brigade, which took it then, had returned and raised the Israeli flag above it. So, it’s a highly symbolic as well as strategic victory, as far as Israel is concerned.<\/p>\n

In 1982 Israeli forces occupied the castle – which is just 14.5km (nine miles) from the Israeli border – but left in 2000 when they withdrew from their self-declared buffer zone in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

For the Lebanese, it’s the latest historic landmark to be seized in recent days, while the city of Nabatieh further north appears to increasingly be a target for the IDF.<\/p>\n

Katz said control of the castle and the ridge it stands upon was an important step in protecting Israeli communities on the other side of the border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: The Israeli military has captured the strategic site of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “decisive shift” in its offensive against Hezbollah. It comes as ground troops move ever deeper into Lebanese territory beyond their original demarcation line of the Litani river. The UK, France and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48736,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48734\/revisions\/48736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}