Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates the IDF’s recent capture of Lebanon’s historic Beaufort Castle and the surrounding strategic ridge, calling it “a dramatic shift” in Israeli policy as forces push deeper into southern Lebanon amid an expanding ground offensive against Hezbollah.
“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading,” Netanyahu says in a video message released by his office, adding, “Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold on areas that had been under Hezbollah’s control.”
The prime minister releases the statement as Hezbollah pounds northern Israel with relentless rocket and drone fire from Lebanon.
Netanyahu adds that Israel has eliminated 8,000 Hezbollah terrorists since the Iran-backed group began attacking Israel following the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza. Three thousand of those operatives were killed since the start of Israel’s war against Iran last June, and seven hundred were killed since last month, Netanyahu says.
“It will take time, but we will complete the mission,” he says.
Thirteen Israelis have been killed since a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced in mid-April, with the most recent fatality a soldier killed by a Hezbollah drone last night.
France has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort castle in Lebanon, the French foreign minister says.
“I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council because, while we recognize Israel’s right, like that of all countries, to self-defense… nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory,” Jean-Noel Barrot says on the BFMTV channel.
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