UN to meet on Lebanon after Israel takes Beaufort castle

QLAYAA, Lebanon: The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting Monday on the fighting in Lebanon after Israel’s military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort in Lebanese territory, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push deeper into Lebanon and called Sunday’s operation a “dramatic shift” in the campaign against Hezbollah.

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.

Diplomatic sources told AFP that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency meeting 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 towards 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.

Hezbollah 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.

A senior US official told AFP on Sunday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 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.

Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,412 people since early March.