Lebanon facing ‘vicious Israeli aggression’
Qlayaa, LEBANON—Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that his country was facing “a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression,” after Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah with the capture of the medieval Beaufort Castle.
Aoun condemned the Israeli offensive in a post on X and pledged to “work to end the suffering of the Lebanese people, and people in the south in particular.”
On Monday the United Nations Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on Lebanon, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the castle’s seizure marked a “dramatic shift” in the fighting.
A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on April 17, but has never been observed. Both sides accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other’s alleged breaches.
No justification for escalation
Diplomatic sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency meeting on Monday over Israel’s expansion of its offensive in the country.
The meeting was requested by France, whose President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing justifies the major escalation under way in south Lebanon,” calling for an end to fighting.
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Israel hit Lebanon over the weekend, with eight people killed in a strike on Deir Zahrani in southern Lebanon on Sunday including three women, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The Iran-backed militant group, meanwhile, said it targeted Israeli forces near the fortress as well as army positions and infrastructure in Shlomi and Nahariya in northern Israel, while air raid sirens blared in the Acre area.
‘Dramatic stage’
A senior US official told AFP on Sunday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Aoun and Netanyahu about the ongoing diplomatic negotiations and asserted that Hezbollah must be the first to cease its attacks.
“To advance those talks, the United States proposed a clear sequence: Hezbollah must stop all attacks on Israel. In return, Israel would refrain from escalation in Beirut,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, about the conversations between the three leaders.
Military delegations from Lebanon and Israel held security talks in Washington on Friday and more US brokered negotiations are planned next week.
In a video statement released after the military took Beaufort, 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.”
Israeli forces used the Beaufort castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, as a base during their previous two decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.
Shelling was audible and smoke rose from the surrounding area as AFP saw the Israeli flag above the castle.
