Israel’s Eyal Zamir Vows Decisive Action Against Hezbollah After Seizing Beaufort Castle

Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, visited forces deployed around Beaufort castle in southern Lebanon on Sunday and vowed the IDF would “continue to operate decisively to remove threats from Lebanese territory.”

Zamir said Israel was prepared to “transition rapidly to offensive operations should the ceasefire be violated,” and he warned that “any threat directed at our troops or the Israeli civilians will be struck immediately and eliminated.”

Al Jazeera

The Arab News account says Israeli forces seized the crusader-era castle and the area around it recently, and it describes Israel’s claim that it uncovered a tunnel network beneath the castle built as a fortified strike hub for Hezbollah fighters.

The same report says Israel previously overran the fortress during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon, after a prolonged battle with Palestinian fighters hidden in the castle’s maze of historic underground tunnels, and that Israel used it as an observation post until troops withdrew in 2000.

In the “security zone” in south Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Saturday that it killed an armed militant in the Majdal Zoun area after soldiers “opened fire at the terrorist” and then, following “extensive searches,” “eliminated” him.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli helicopter carried out “a broad sweep operation on the outskirts” of Majdal Zoun and launched five missiles toward the village, without specifying a target or immediately reporting casualties.

Al-Arabiya CGTN

The AFP account carried by الصحيفة الخليج says the Israeli army statement described units of Brigade 551 under the command of the 91st Division spotting a militant inside the security zone in Majdal Zoun, firing at him and pursuing him before eliminating him to remove the threat.

The same AFP-linked report also says the NNA reported an Israeli airstrike on the town of Al-Mansouri in the Tyre District that wounded one person, and it adds that Israeli artillery shelled Mount Baasil opposite Ramia and Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil District.

Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun urged the United States to stand by Lebanon after reaching a US-backed framework deal with Israel, and the South China Morning Post says the deal calls for disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and deployment of the Lebanese army there starting with two “pilot” areas.

The same report says Hezbollah rejected the deal because it “does not set a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal,” while Aoun told President Donald Trump in a message marking the United States’ 250th anniversary of independence to “keep always standing beside Lebanon’s right and just causes, its institutions, army and people.”

In parallel, Noovo Info reports that a United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon was targeted Saturday morning by small-arms fire near the village of Ghandouriyeh, leaving one dead and three French UN peacekeepers wounded, two of them seriously, according to President Emmanuel Macron and UNIFIL.

Noovo Info also says Macron wrote on social media, “Everything points to Hezbollah’s responsibility for this attack,” and it adds that France called on Lebanese authorities to immediately arrest those responsible and to take responsibility alongside UNIFIL.