Israeli troops have seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said on Sunday, a major advance against Iran-backed Hezbollah more than six weeks after the April ceasefire was announced, Ada Derana reported.
The operation focused on establishing control of the Beaufort Ridge and the Wadi al-Saluki area while “degrading the Hezbollah militia and its infrastructure on the ridge established under Iranian direction,” the military said. One Israeli soldier was killed. There were no immediate comments from Lebanon or from Hezbollah.
The advance came after Saturday saw one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern Israel since the April truce, prompting school closures and movement restrictions in border communities. It deepens Israel’s footprint in Lebanon as the Israel-Hezbollah military front remains active even while a parallel 60-day ceasefire framework with Iran holds in the wider regional war.
Hezbollah entered the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran by firing rockets and drones into Israel on March 2, days after the Iran conflict began, prompting an Israeli push to drive the Iran-backed militia away from its northern border. The capture of Beaufort Castle hands Israeli troops an overlook point over much of southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
The Lebanese government — engaged in extending the April ceasefire by 45 days through Washington-mediated talks — has not commented on the medieval-fortress advance, the most consequential territorial gain by the Israeli military inside Lebanon this year.
Separately, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 41 people had been killed and 140 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon over the past day, bringing the cumulative death toll since the conflict resumed to more than 3,400, Ada Derana reported. The ministry’s count was issued despite the April 17 ceasefire that remains nominally in force.
