Israel bombs Beirut, recaptures crusader castle, but Trump says Israel will dial back war in Lebanon

BEIRUT — Israeli infantry advanced up the hill at midnight, punching their way through a bare-fingered, eyeball-to-eyeball fight against the emplaced defenders until they reached their objective: the Beaufort fortress.

The date was June 6, 1982, and at the end of this event and after many casualties, Israeli troops raised the flag atop the Crusader stronghold, marking the beginning of Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

Almost exactly 44 years have passed since that night — and just over 26 years since the Hezbollah-led insurgency forced it to retreat — Israeli soldiers once again attacked Beaufort as Israeli leaders continued a campaign that could reoccupy a fifth of Lebanon.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to attack targets in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, a day after declaring the reconquest of Beaufort a “dramatic change” in policy that would push Israel to “deepen and expand our influence in places under Hezbollah’s control.”

This move annulled one of the few concrete achievements of the US-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel declared on April 17. The ceasefire had mostly excluded Beirut and the surrounding area, although it did not stop Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which has killed nearly 800 people since the ceasefire came into force, and Hezbollah’s fire into northern Israel.

Israel’s intensifying Lebanon campaign has threatened the already tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, but President Trump said he had persuaded Israel to withdraw its attack.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had a “very productive” meeting with Netanyahu and that “no troops will be going to Beirut and any troops that go have already been turned away.”

Trump added that Hezbollah “agreed that all attacks will stop, that Israel will not attack them and they will not attack Israel.”

Netanyahu has previously said Israel would pursue Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, which neighbors Beirut to the south and has long been dominated by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed paramilitary group and political party.

Netanyahu’s announcement triggered an exodus from Dahiyeh; Residents have frantically abandoned homes they had previously had to abandon several times in recent months, and the roads are clogged with cars and angry drivers. An Israeli drone circled overhead, buzzing non-stop all day long.

Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes struck parts of southern Lebanon. The Israeli military has issued a mandatory relocation order for villages and towns north of the Litani River, a vital Lebanese waterway that extends to Israel’s border with Lebanon and will demarcate the so-called Security Zone “free of weapons and terrorists,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday.

Israel used the Litani to designate a similar area during its previous invasion of Lebanon.

The current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on March 2 after the group launched drones and missiles in revenge for Israel’s killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Hezbollah’s attacks were also a response to Israel’s continued attacks and destruction of villages in Southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire declared in November 2024. (Israel claimed its attacks were in response to Hezbollah violations.)

Hezbollah’s barrage in March provoked an angry response from Israel; Israel launched a fierce air offensive and a ground offensive that pushed its ground troops deeper into Lebanon.

Lebanese officials say Israeli attacks have since killed more than 3,412 people, including 133 medics, and systematically destroyed entire villages in southern Lebanon.

Even before Netanyahu’s weekend announcement, Israel occupied about 220 square miles of Lebanese territory, roughly two-thirds of San Diego, analysts say.

Since March 2, Hezbollah’s drones and missiles have killed two people in Israel, as well as at least 21 soldiers and one civilian contractor in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.

Netanyahu’s announcement that Beaufort would take over and intensify the campaign in Lebanon was met with outrage, dismissals and condemnation from within and outside the region, and enthusiastic approval from right-wing members of his cabinet who have long clamored for a tougher stance on Lebanon.

“The return to Beaufort is an expression of the correction of old national sins and distorted perceptions,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, adding that he would “continue to demand and encourage the permanent seizure of territory and extraordinary military aggression.”

France, Britain and Germany condemned Israel’s military operations in Lebanon; France requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, and French President Emmanuel Macron said on channel X on Sunday that “nothing can justify” Israeli tensions in Lebanon.

In another statement on Monday, Macron said he praised President Trump for his “commitment to Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” in a phone call Sunday night.

Iran says it will accept an end to the war only if the weapons in Lebanon are silenced; Israel, on the other hand, does not initiate this situation and insists on its freedom to attack Hezbollah in order to prevent its re-formation.

“The ceasefire between Iran and the United States is an undisputed ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbass Aragchi wrote on X on Monday.

“Violation on one front means violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The United States and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” he wrote.

The background of Israel’s expanded offensive includes negotiations between Washington and Tehran, as well as direct negotiations between the Lebanese and Israeli governments. The U.S.-brokered talks, which began in April, represent a reversal of decades of policy banning Lebanese officials from contact with Israelis.

Israel and the United States are seeking an agreement that would enable the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and normalize relations with Israel. The Lebanese government has taken steps to neutralize Hezbollah during the 2024 ceasefire by outlawing its military activities and taking over part of its military infrastructure.

But the Lebanese government still insists that the group, whose Iranian-supplied arsenal is more advanced than that of the Lebanese Army, cannot forcibly remove its weapons for fear of triggering a civil war.

Hezbollah is not a party to the negotiations and says it will not abide by their results.

“Israel’s escalation has proven the failure of the direct negotiation option pursued by Israel.” [Lebanese] Hasan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah parliamentarian, told local media on Sunday that the authorities would prevent them from making any gains.

“All of the political outcomes of these negotiations served the interests of the enemy, who used them to deepen his crimes against Lebanon, especially in the south,” he said.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said his government had no choice but to begin negotiations.

“Unfortunately, some see negotiation as surrender. It is not,” he said at a meeting with political party representatives on Monday, according to a report from Lebanon’s state news operator. he said.

“Instead, it’s a solution to stopping wars with the least possible damage,” he said.