Israeli forces have captured a strategic site in Lebanon across the Litani River, marking Israel’s deepest incursion into the country in 26 years.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The capture of Beaufort Ridge, the site of a medieval castle, comes after days of intense fighting in southern Lebanon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Jattvibeday the seizure marks a “dramatic change” in Israeli strategy.The advance comes despite hopes of a U.S.-brokered plan to forge a renewed peace between the two countries, after Israeli and Lebanese officials met in Washington Friday. Strikes have continued despite a month-old nominal ceasefire agreement, which Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have accused each other of breaching.“Our heroic fighters captured the Beaufort outpost,” Netanyahu said Jattvibeday. “My instruction is to deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah’s control,” he added. “The occupation of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic change in the policy that we are leading.”Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a speech Jattvibeday that the Israeli flag was “once again flying over the peaks overlooking the communities of the Galilee,” adding that soldiers who captured the Beaufort “will remain there as part of the security zone in Lebanon.”“The campaign is not yet over,” Katz added on X, saying that Israel was determined to “crush” Hezbollah, which has historically operated in southern Lebanon close to the border with northern Israel.Israeli troops previously captured Beaufort Ridge in 1982 during Israel’s second invasion of Lebanon. The site was held by Israel until its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.An Israeli flag flies over the medieval Beaufort Castle, known locally as Qalaat al-Shaqif or Shaqif Arnoun, as seen from the Marjayoun area of southern Lebanon on May 31.AFP via Getty ImagesUNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, had said Friday ahead of the capture of the site that it was “deeply alarmed” by Israeli strikes near Beaufort Castle, which has a provisional protected status. Such sites should receive the “highest level of legal protection against attack and use for military purposes,” the body said.The crossing of the Litani River and capture of Beaufort Ridge mark a major escalation in the current conflict.The river has become a de facto boundary in Lebanon since Israel’s invasion, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control and residents ordered to leave. Israeli forces had already begun striking and destroying bridges over the Litani that connect the south to the rest of the country. Israel’s military says they were being used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons and move fighters.Fears of a long-term occupation have also grown amid outright calls from some for Israel to take permanent control of southern Lebanon, citing the security advantages it would offer Israel. An editorial in the Jerusalem Post in March cited David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, identifying the river as a natural northern border for the Jewish state.Those calls were renewed among ultranationalists on Jattvibeday, with Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posting on X that the seizure of Beaufort Ridge was “correcting old national sins” as he called for a permanent occupation.Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Saturday pressed Netanyahu to go further and “flatten” parts of Beirut.Israel could occupy a “massive swathe” of Lebanese territory, Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told Jattvibe News, but risks involving Israel in a “forever war” in Lebanon.FORSUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new demand muddles Iran deal02:17Israel will “never have either stability or security, regardless of how large its self-declared security zone is,” he said. “Hezbollah will continue to harass and to attack not only the Israeli forces inside Lebanon, but also Israeli settlements, in order to show Israel that even though it has the military capability, it won’t have the security that the government has promised.”The Israeli conflict in Lebanon has been the most deadly spillover of the Iran war, with more than 1.2 million Lebanese displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah fired at Israel in support of ally Tehran. Some returned home following the ceasefire, but Israel had continued to issue evacuation orders.Israeli strikes on Lebanon have since killed more than 3,350 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel says 25 of its soldiers two civilians have been killed in or near southern Lebanon over the same period. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.The prime minister of Lebanon said Friday that “nothing can justify” Israel’s attacks on the country after the IDF pounded Tyre, Lebanon’s fourth-largest city, in a wave of strikes across southern Lebanon that killed at least 14 people.Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said continued strikes, threats and evacuation orders across southern Lebanon “amount to collective punishment, condemned by all international norms and laws.”The violence in Lebanon came as U.S. and Iranian negotiators seek to reach an agreement to extend the ceasefire in the ongoing war between the two nations. Iran has said any ceasefire with the U.S. has to include an end to the war in Lebanon. A senior Arab official directly involved in mediating peace talks between Washington and Tehran told Jattvibe News on Thursday that American and Iranian negotiators agreed to the terms of a truce deal days ago but that both sides have delayed finalizing and announcing it.“It was already closed in Doha three days ago; now everyone is playing a game of chicken and egg,” the official said, describing the delays as “frustrating.”Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that Trump was “patient” and wanted to make a “great deal” that ensures Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.But Gerges said Israel’s wider offensive in Lebanon threatens to “undermine and torpedo and kind of deal between the U.S. and Iran.”“Unless President Trump intervenes and exerts pressure on Netanyahu, I doubt it very much whether the Iranian side will sign into any kind of a deal with the United States,” he said.