Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said on Sunday (May 31, 2026).

The taking of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, followed days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants.

The capture marked a major Israeli advance in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.

Since then, Israel has launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border. Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington starting Tuesday.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, said he can guarantee the militant group’s “full, comprehensive and immediate commitment to a ceasefire.”

“But who will force Israel to stop its aggression?” he said in a statement on his television station, NBN.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Israeli 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,” Mr. Barrot said on Sunday (May 31, 2026) on French television BFM TV.

Diplomats said the council meeting might take place Monday (June 1, 2026) afternoon, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

A historic and strategic fortress

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted photographs on X showing Israeli troops walking outside the castle, and Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that they raised an Israeli flag over the castle. Israeli troops previously captured the castle in 1982 and held it until they withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.

“Twenty six years after the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, the Israeli flag has returned to fly on the peaks that overlook the Galilee towns,” Katz said Sunday at a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in its previous occupation of southern Lebanon.

Katz said Israel intends to hold the castle as its troops work to destroy thousands more homes that he says were used by Hezbollah and other military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

The Beaufort fortress, perched high atop Lebanon’s rolling green hills and overlooking the Litani River, has been a strategic military asset for centuries.

Built as a Crusader castle around the 12th century on top of previous fortifications, it has also been used by Saladin’s Jerusalem army, Mamluks, Ottomans, the French mandate and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Crusaders named it Beaufort, which is Old French for “beautiful fortress.” The 1982 capture of the castle from the PLO was a major victory for the Israeli military, which was then led by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister. At the time, the Israeli army pushed all the way north and occupied Beirut.

In 2000, the castle was partially restored and opened to visitors.

During the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, UNESCO gave enhanced protection to 34 cultural sites in Lebanon, including Beaufort Castle, to safeguard them from damage.

The castle is a few kilometers north of the Israel border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon and northern Israel. In Arabic, it is called Al-Shaqif castle, an old Syriac word referring to the formidable rocky area.

Israel expands invasion in Lebanon

In recent days, Israel has expanded the scope of its operations in Lebanon, sending troops across the Litani River, which previously served as a de-facto boundary, and demanding that residents leave much of southern Lebanon.

“The occupation of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policies we are leading,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, citing the military occupation of security zones in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza along Israel’s borders. He said Israel has killed 3,000 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war. Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualty numbers.

Israel has designated the area from the Litani up to the Zahrani River a combat zone. Some residents have already left the area due to intense strikes in recent days, but people remain.

Israeli troops have been advancing for days in villages close to Beaufort castle. They are now about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Nabatiyeh, a major center in southern Lebanon. They have called on people to leave that area, as well as the coastal city of Tyre, the country’s fourth-largest city, and its surroundings.

Published – June 01, 2026 06:04 am IST

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinian children carry plastic jerrycans filled with water at a displacement camp in Gaza City, on January 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

A truck driver picks up humanitarian aid designated for Gaza, as reporters tour the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza City, on November 29, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza City, on November 29, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli forces on Thursday (November 27, 2025) killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender to troops, drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed “in cold blood.” The Israeli military said it was investigating.

The killings, captured in videos shown on two Arab TV stations, came as Israel pressed ahead with its latest offensive in the West Bank, where the army has stepped up its activities over the past two years. Israel says it is cracking down on militants, but Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of using excessive force and say dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed.

Israel has been fighting on a number of fronts as a shaky ceasefire in Gaza moves forward. On Thursday, Israel carried out another round of airstrikes on suspected Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon. Ongoing conflicts in the region have fueled concerns that unrest could spill over and undermine the fragile truce in Gaza.

A Palestinian-American teenager held in Israeli detention for nine months was also released on Thursday night. The 16-year-old emerged visibly thin and was embraced by his crying family.

The Israeli military and national police announced they were opening an investigation into the deaths on Thursday of the two men, who were shot by members of the border police, a special unit that often operates alongside the Israeli military.

In a video shown on Palestine TV, which has no sound, the two men come out of a garage holding their hands up and lifting their shirts to show they are not carrying explosives. They are ordered to the ground and kicked by one of the policemen. They are then ordered back to the garage. In a video shown by Egyptian TV station Al-Ghad, the men are ordered back to the entrance of the garage. As they are on the ground and surrounded by troops, gunshots are heard and the men slump down, apparently lifeless. At least one soldier is seen firing his weapon.

In a statement, the Israeli military said the two men were wanted militants in the northern town of Jenin who had thrown explosives and opened fire at troops.

It said that after the men surrendered and exited a building, “fire was directed toward the suspects.” It said was the incident was “under review” and would be referred “to the relevant professional bodies.”

Palestinians and human rights groups say such investigations yield few results, and Israeli troops are rarely prosecuted.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the national police, praised the Israeli forces, saying they had acted “exactly as they are expected to — terrorists must die!”

In Ramallah, the Palestinian Prime Minister’s office accused Israel of executing the men “in cold blood.” It called the shooting “an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Palestinian authorities identified the men as Al-Muntasir Abdullah, 26, and Yousef Asasa, 37, and said Israel had taken away their bodies.

The incident was reminiscent of the case of Elor Azaria — a soldier convicted of manslaughter in 2017 for fatally shooting an already wounded Palestinian attacker. That case deeply divided the nation, with nationalistic politicians defending the soldier. Azaria was released early from prison after serving a nine-month sentence.

The shooting is part of a larger operation in a northeastern region of the West Bank. Israel’s military has detained more than 100 people since Tuesday (November 25, 2025) in the town of Tubas, according to Abdullah al-Zaghari, spokesman for the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

The military has said the operation was a response to “attempts to establish terrorist strongholds and construction of terror infrastructures in the area.” On Nov. 19, Palestinian attackers stabbed an Israeli to death and wounded three more at a West Bank intersection before being shot down by troops.

Israel’s military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.

The latest operation comes amid a rising tide of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. Israeli leaders have played down the settler attacks as the work of a small minority. But Palestinians say the attacks are frequent, often in close proximity to Israeli troops, and the settlers are rarely punished.

Israel’s air force carried out another series of strikes in parts of southern Lebanon on Thursday. Israel says its ongoing strikes are aimed at preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding after a devastating war last year.

But the United Nations on Tuesday said Israel had killed at least 127 civilians, including children, in its strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect one year ago. Things escalated earlier this week with a rare strike in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, killing Hezbollah’s chief of staff.

On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Hezbollah for not disarming in a rare rebuke of the group, saying the Iran-backed militants have failed to deter Israeli airstrikes, protect the Lebanese people or even safeguard the lives of its own leaders.

Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the country on Sunday (November 30, 2025), when he will meet the crisis-hit nation’s political and religious leaders.

Mohammed Ibrahim, an American teenager held in Israeli custody for nine months, was released on Thursday evening and immediately checked into a hospital, his uncle told the AP.

Visibly thin, head shaven and still in a grey jumpsuit, Ibrahim wiped tears away as he was embraced by family members shortly after his release in videos taken by the family. His father, Zaher Ibrahim, kissed his son and began to cry.

“He’s skinny and pale, his eyes are sunken in and he still has signs of scabies,” said Zeyad Kadur, the uncle.

The teen was visiting family in the West Bank with his parents when he was arrested at his family’s home at night for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and several members of Congress. In an affidavit, Mohammed said he only confessed to stone-throwing after he was threatened by interrogators with a beating.

His family and lawyers said he was held in poor conditions, suffered a scabies infection and lost weight in jail.

Published – November 28, 2025 07:11 am IST

A U.S. proposal to provide a United Nations mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza is facing opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries, which have expressed unease about a yet-to-be established board that would temporarily govern the territory and the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority.

The Chinese and the Russians — two veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council — have called for the “Board of Peace” under President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan to be removed from the resolution entirely, according to four U.N. diplomats briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.

In the latest draft released late Wednesday (November 13, 2025) and obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. maintains the language around the board while providing further commitment to Palestinian self-determination.

While some of the responses to the U.S. proposal reflect typical negotiations between countries — with detailed back-and-forth and revisions in language — the objection to the transitional board indicates that wide gaps have emerged between some members of the U.N.’s most powerful body and the U.S. following more than two years of war.

At the same time, other members said quick action would avoid upending the progress toward peace, one diplomat said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the urgency, saying the resolution needs to be passed “right away.”

“I think we’re making good progress on the language of the resolution, and hopefully we’ll have action on it very soon,” he told reporters Wednesday before departing a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada. “We don’t want to lose momentum on this.”

UN Security Council members sought changes to the US proposal

The U.S. first circulated a draft resolution last week to the 15 members of the Security Council that would give a broad international mandate to the stabilization force to provide security in Gaza through the end of 2027, working with the yet-to-be-established Board of Peace. Arab and other countries that have expressed interest in participating in the force have indicated that such a mandate is necessary for them to contribute troops.

Russia, China and Algeria voiced their opposition to that draft, and all but two of the other Security Council members submitted amendments, one of the diplomats said.

The sticking points surrounded the pathway to an independent Palestinian state and timeline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, according to two of the diplomats. The new draft this week responds to objections that the resolution didn’t envision a future independent Palestinian state — but without absolutes.

It says after reforms to the Palestinian Authority are “faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” “The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” it adds.

U.S. makes changes but keeps transitional authority

The new draft adds that as the stabilization force “establishes control and stability,” the Israeli military will withdraw from the Gaza Strip. It reiterates that the step would be based on “standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarization and agreed” by Israel, the stabilization force, the U.S. and others.

The United Arab Emirates, a major U.S. ally in the peace negotiations, said publicly this week that it does not yet see a clear framework for the proposed stabilization force in Gaza and, under the current circumstances, will not take part in it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood and a Gaza governed by the Palestinian Authority, which runs pockets of the West Bank. But the language in Trump’s plan seems to encourage a role for a Palestinian state.

Other countries on the Security Council have asked for further clarification on the Board of Peace, including who will be on it and how it will operate. The new draft did not make big changes regarding the board.

Some countries push quick action to preserve momentum

Some council members say swift adoption of any proposal with the U.N. stamp of approval would be wise to keep up with the positive momentum on the ground, one diplomat said.

That diplomat and others said the Americans could get frustrated with the negotiations and decide to go forward unilaterally with a force from willing countries that would not have U.N. backing.

A U.S. official, speaking Thursday (November 13) on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, expressed some of those frustrations, saying every day spent negotiating “is a day that risks a return to fighting and suffering.” The US likely has three options going forward, another diplomat said: — Accept some meaningful amendments.

— Put its draft to a vote, needing nine votes to pass and no veto by any of the Security Council’s permanent members: Russia, China, France, Britain and the US — Bring together nations in a “coalition of the willing” outside the U.N. to take on and fund the stabilization of Gaza.

Whether Russia or China would veto a new draft if the US puts it to a vote without significant changes is uncertain.

The same diplomat said Moscow and Beijing had sought more than half the draft gutted and only want the stabilization force and for it to report to the Security Council.

Some details of the U.S. draft resolution

The current draft calls for the force to ensure “the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip” and “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.” A big question in Mr. Trump’s 20-step plan for a ceasefire and reconstruction in the territory is how to disarm Hamas, which has not fully accepted that step.

The text says the stabilization troops would help secure border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted, as well as coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance. It calls for the force to closely consult and cooperate with neighboring Egypt and Israel.

It emphasizes the “full resumption” of aid to Gaza by the United Nations, Red Cross and Red Crescent and ensuring that those needed supplies are not diverted.

Published – November 14, 2025 07:59 am IST

Palestinians carry water amid the ruins of Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Wednesday (October 22, 2025) at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip as part of a mission to monitor a U.S.-backed ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Speaking in Jerusalem alongside visiting U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Mr. Netanyahu said they had discussed the “day-after” for Gaza, including who could provide security in the territory shattered by two years of war.

Mr. Vance, who said on Tuesday (October 21) U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan was going better than expected, reiterated his optimism. “I never said it was easy. But what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is going to hold and that we can actually build a better future in the entire Middle East,” he said.

With a fragile ceasefire in place for 12 days, focus has switched to the second phase of Mr. Trump’s Gaza plan.

This requires Hamas to disarm and foresees the establishment of an internationally-supervised Palestinian committee to run Gaza with an international force supporting vetted Palestinian police.

NETANYAHU HAS ‘STRONG OPINIONS’ ON TURKISH ROLE IN GAZA

Responding to a question about the idea of Turkish security forces in Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu said: “I have very strong opinions about that. Want to guess what they are?”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the Defence Ministry declined to comment on the issue.

Mr. Vance said on Tuesday (October 21) there would be a “constructive role” for Turkey to play but that Washington wouldn’t force anything on Israel when it came to foreign troops “on their soil”.

Once warm relations between NATO member Turkey and Israel hit new lows during the Gaza war, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticising Israel’s attacks on the enclave and elsewhere in the region, and Syria — which borders both states — emerging as an arena of intensifying rivalry.

Turkey, which helped persuade Hamas to accept Mr. Trump’s plan, has said it would take part in the international task force to monitor the ceasefire implementation, and that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed.

Hamas has resisted pressure to disarm, saying that it is ready to hand its weapons to a future Palestinian state.

Mr. Vance said: “We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas, but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.”

BODIES BURIED IN GAZA

The ceasefire was followed by the release of remaining living hostages seized in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, and the freeing of some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners by Israel.

But it remains fragile, with flashes of violence and recriminations over the pace of returning hostage bodies, bringing in aid and opening borders.

Hamas has reasserted control in Gaza since the ceasefire by deploying armed men on the streets and cracking down on groups that have challenged its grip.

Health authorities in Gaza said a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in Gaza City. The Israeli military was looking into the report, a spokesperson said.

Gazan authorities buried the bodies of 54 unidentified people handed over by Israel, the Gaza government media office said. Medics said 30 more bodies arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after being released by Israel.

Israeli authorities have said the bodies belong to militants who invaded Israel in the October 7 attacks or were killed in battle with Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.

Hamas has released the bodies of 15 out of 28 deceased hostages seized in 2023. Mr. Vance on Tuesday (October 21) said some of the remaining bodies were buried deep under rubble, saying it would take “a little bit of time” to recover them and urging patience.

Israeli forces have killed at least 88 Palestinians, among them civilians, since the ceasefire began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and two Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants in southern Gaza over the weekend.

Hamas’ attack on Israel that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, with 251 dragged into Gaza as hostages. Israeli attacks have killed more than 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Published – October 22, 2025 09:05 pm IST