Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that his country was facing "a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression" after Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah with the capture of the medieval Beaufort Castle.

Aoun condemned the Israeli offensive in a post on X and pledged to "work to end the suffering of the Lebanese people, and people in the south in particular".

On Monday the UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on Lebanon called by France, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the castle's seizure marked a "dramatic shift" in the fighting.

In the latest advance, Israeli troops seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said, a day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire towards northern Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures and restrictions.

"I instructed the [military] to expand its ground manoeuvre in Lebanon," Netanyahu said in a statement. (AFP & Reuters)



Edited by Thomas McAlinden