European leaders condemn Israel’s deepening incursion into Lebanon | Lebanon
European leaders condemned Israel’s widening offensive into Lebanon after Israel captured the medieval Beaufort castle and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to go deeper into the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to the conflict, saying, “Nothing can justify the great tension that continues in Southern Lebanon.” The country’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, requested that the UN security council meet on Monday.
The foreign ministers of England and Germany also joined France in condemning the new operation. British Yvette Cooper called for respect for the ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has been in effect since April. The US-brokered ceasefire to stop fighting between both sides has been rarely observed.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah, which has a strong political presence in southern Lebanon and has launched thousands of missiles and drones into northern Israel. Israel’s campaign displaced more than a million people from their homes, while 3,300 people, including dozens of children, were killed.
The current conflict began in March after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader. Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, accused Israel on Saturday of “implementing a policy of completely destroying cities and towns.”
Netanyahu described Sunday’s capture of the Beaufort fortress as a “dramatic shift” in the campaign against Hezbollah. Israeli forces used the Beaufort fortress, also known as Kalaat al-Shaqif, as a base during their twenty-year occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000.
The castle offers views of Lebanon and northern Israel. It was built as a crusader fortress in the 12th century and was later occupied by Saladin’s Jerusalem army, the Ottomans, the French and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In the video statement released after the army captured Beaufort, Netanyahu said: “We returned united, determined and stronger than ever.
“My instruction now is to deepen and expand our influence in places under Hezbollah’s control.”
Netanyahu noted the historical importance of the fortress, which the army first captured in 1982, and described it as “a symbol of a heroic war for our warriors.”
But some experts questioned the strategic significance of the takeover and said it was little more than a public relations coup.
Orna Mizrahi, former deputy chairman of Israel’s national security council, told The Associated Press that the military’s presence there will not solve the problem with Hezbollah. “We are harming them with operations, but in parallel, we need to look for a political and diplomatic solution,” Mizrahi said.
Talks between senior officials from Israel and Lebanon began in Washington in April; This was the first time in more than three decades that this had happened between countries without formal diplomatic relations. These talks are planned to continue this week, but Hezbollah is not taking part in the talks and has announced that it will not accept any outcome.
Israel’s recent advance and ongoing violence in Lebanon also pose a challenge to efforts to broker a lasting peace agreement between the United States and Iran. Tehran has continued to insist that any agreement with Washington to extend the current ceasefire and return ships to the Strait of Hormuz must also include an end to hostilities in Lebanon.
Observers have suggested that Israeli officials and military commanders want to inflict as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before a possible agreement would impose new borders or halt the current offensive.
With Agence France-Presse
