Israeli forces have reached the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh and captured the strategic Beaufort Castle despite a ceasefire agreement in place since April, as analysts warn Israel is laying the groundwork for long-term control of territory inside Lebanon.

The advance marks Israel’s deepest incursion into Lebanon in more than a quarter of a century. Israeli forces now occupy about 2,000 square kilometres (770 square miles) of Lebanese territory – nearly one-fifth of the country.

Israel initially said its objective was to remove Hezbollah fighters from areas south of the Litani River closer to its border. But its forces are now operating well beyond that line, with the Israeli military issuing evacuation orders extending as far north as the Zahrani River (around 10km or 6 miles north of the Litani River), further expanding its military control.

Israeli troops have reached the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Choukine on the outskirts of Nabatieh – a Hezbollah stronghold – while Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli strikes on Deir ez-Zahrani at dawn on Sunday killed several people.

The advance towards the north comes as Israeli and Lebanese officials continue US-mediated talks aimed at reaching a permanent end to the conflict, while outlining plans to disarm Hezbollah, which has slammed the negotiations amid Israeli attacks.

Meanwhile, a parallel tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran has become increasingly tied to developments on the Lebanese front, with Iranian officials warning that an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon is a prerequisite for any meaningful progress in negotiations between the two countries to end the US-Israel war on Iran.

The continued advance into southern Lebanon follows blanket evacuation orders issued for Nabatieh earlier this week, as well as similar orders covering the coastal city of Tyre.

“The [Israeli army] is operating near Nabatieh, which constitutes a significant Hezbollah power centre in southern Lebanon, and is prepared and ready to expand the offensive as required,” the Israeli military said in a post on X.

Imad Salamey, an international relations professor at the Lebanese American University, told Al Jazeera that the city’s significance extends far beyond military considerations.

“Nabatieh is strategically important because it represents far more than a military hub; it is one of the principal political, economic, and social centres of Lebanon’s Shia community and a key connective node between southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Militarily, control of Nabatieh would provide Israel with greater operational depth beyond the Litani River, facilitating pressure on Hezbollah’s command, logistics, and support networks throughout southern Lebanon.

“Politically, however, the significance is even greater. A move towards Nabatieh would suggest that Israeli objectives have evolved from the original goal of pushing Hezbollah north of the Litani into a broader campaign aimed at dismantling [Hezbollah’s] entire territorial and communal infrastructure.”

Salamey said the displacement of residents from Nabatieh and Tyre could weaken Hezbollah’s social base while reshaping the demographic and political landscape of southern Lebanon.

Souhayb Jawhar, a Lebanese journalist and analyst, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces reaching Nabatieh would mark a major shift in the conflict.

“Israeli control over it, or even encircling it, would represent a serious transformation because it would shift the war from a border zone into the political and social heart of southern Lebanon,” he said.

“This would mean expanding displacement, weakening state institutions in the south, undermining Hezbollah’s image as a force capable of protecting its constituency, and opening the door to a new security reality that may go beyond the objective of pushing Hezbollah away towards redrawing the balance of control within the south.”

Further east, Israeli forces have pushed north along the ridgeline overlooking the Litani River valley and captured Beaufort Castle, a Crusader-era fortress perched on a strategic hilltop.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said forces from the Golani Brigade had crossed the Litani River and seized the site.

The fortress lies about 15km (9 miles) from the Israeli border and overlooks large areas of southern Lebanon. Israeli forces previously occupied the site for nearly two decades before withdrawing from Lebanon in 2000.

Salamey said the seizure of the fortress offers Israel both military and symbolic advantages. “The capture of the Beaufort Castle high ground is significant because it overlooks extensive areas of southern Lebanon and provides observation and fire-control advantages over surrounding terrain,” he said.

“Historically, the site has been associated with some of the most intense confrontations between Israel and Palestinian and later Hezbollah forces, making it both militarily useful and symbolically powerful.”

The position overlooks routes linking southern Lebanon with the western Bekaa Valley and provides commanding views over areas surrounding Nabatieh, giving Israeli forces greater control over movement and supply lines in the region.

Over the weekend, the Israeli military warned residents living south of the Zahrani River to leave immediately. The order is significant because the Zahrani River lies considerably north of the Litani River, which Israel had previously presented as the effective limit of the zone it sought to clear of Hezbollah forces.

In a statement posted on X, Israeli military spokesperson Ella Waweya said the operation was aimed at “destroying terrorist infrastructure and eliminating saboteurs” while strengthening Israeli control in southern Lebanon.

The widening evacuation zone has raised questions about Israel’s long-term objectives.

“If the objective were solely to remove Hezbollah’s military presence from areas south of the Litani, operations would likely remain confined to that zone,” Salamey said.

“Expanding military activity and evacuation demands farther north may indicate an effort to establish a deeper security belt, create conditions for prolonged territorial control, or secure leverage for future political arrangements.”

Jawhar said the expanding evacuation orders also suggested Israel’s objectives had moved beyond the Litani River.

“This development reveals that Israel is not only seeking to push Hezbollah fighters and short-range missiles away from the border, but also to strike the party’s military, logistical and command infrastructure deeper inside southern Lebanon,” he said.

“In practical terms, this means that the concept of the ‘security belt’ may have expanded from the Litani line to something resembling a deeper buffer zone extending as far as the Zahrani, even if this has not been officially declared.”

Jawhar’s assessment comes as senior Israeli politicians increasingly speak in terms that suggest a more permanent military presence.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised the capture of Beaufort Castle as a correction of what he described as past mistakes. He added that he would continue to push for “a permanent territorial conception and exceptional military aggressiveness”.

“For every explosive drone, 10 buildings must fall in Beirut. Israel must change the equation,” he said.

Analysts say the military escalation is also undermining efforts by the Lebanese government to strengthen state authority and negotiate a lasting settlement.

Jawhar said Israel’s actions suggested objectives that extended beyond its stated goal of removing Hezbollah from areas south of the Litani River. “If that were the only goal, there would be little need to advance beyond the Litani or issue evacuation orders reaching the Zahrani,” he said.

“What is taking place suggests that Israel seeks to dismantle Hezbollah’s military system, create a devastated or depopulated area that reduces the group’s ability to operate, and impose new facts on the ground before any political or security negotiations.”

He said Israel may not be seeking a permanent occupation similar to the one it maintained in southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000, but instead a longer-term system of military control through buffer zones, surveillance and freedom of action inside Lebanese territory.

Filippo Dionigi, a professor of international relations at the University of Bristol, told Al Jazeera that the continued Israeli attacks risk weakening the Lebanese government – and may inadvertently strengthen Hezbollah’s influence.

“If Israel was abiding by the ceasefire entirely, then the Lebanese government could at least claim that its negotiations are bearing fruits that are beneficial to Lebanese interests. But this is not happening,” he said.

Instead, the continuing military campaign risks reinforcing Hezbollah’s claim that armed resistance remains necessary, he added.

“Israel attacks Lebanon, undermines the legitimacy of the government and the legitimacy of the talks between Lebanon and Israel,” Dionigi said.

“At the same time, it actually reinforces the sense of legitimacy for Hezbollah’s military action against Israel.”

END OF ARTICLE

as a member of the Superior ashkeNAZI race, we need Lebensraum.
All these inferior semites surrounding us must go.

there will be no more Beta Israel Ethiopian Jews allowed into our country.
The few that are in there now are necessary to do the menial tasks that the Palestinians whom all will soon be deported, once did.

>>1517557
>There will be no challenge today.

>>1517541
At this point any aggression on the part of Israel just gets added to the growing list of war crimes and the world shrugs it's shoulders

>>1517595
I don't understand why.

>>1517596
Because acts of aggression are definitionally not self-defense.

>>1517597
No, I mean I don't understand why everyone's just shrugging. Why does everyone let Israel get away with everything?

>>1517596
>>1517598
Israel has nukes and the full support of the US, which also has nukes, which means if you actually as a nation want to stand against them you have to go to war with the US too. It’s not simply a matter of being afraid of that but taking things in consideration, and evaluating damage that could be brought against your own people against containment of Israeli aggression.
If you look around Israel and consider why for example Egypt don’t just declare war against them you have to consider that it will widen the conflict and cost the lives potentially of millions more people. Cairo could be bombed, the US navy would want control of the Suez etc. Weigh that against the fact that Gaza is still fighting, Israel can’t claim conquest there, and Israel are still not consolidated in the South of Lebanon to a degree where they can send in settlers in both or either places.
There are further complications like the Saudis, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE preferring to facilitate the US and Israel going to war against Iran.

So wait the entire world is letting Israel take over the entire Middle East far beyond what was allocated to them after world war II and even far beyond what was theirs in ancient history?

Why is everybody okay with this? Why aren't Americans angry about this?

>>1517617
amerigolems love seeing their masters gain power, why would you expect anything different

>>1517623
Who are these people? Old white men with money?

If you're under 50 and not connected to the glass churches, you really want this Israel stuff to stop.

>>1517624
nah, it’s wide cross section of american society. the whole ‘it’s only the conservative boomers who support israel’ is a massive cope. even in the democrats where there is evidence that younger people are done supporting israel, the party leadership just ignores them.

>>1517598
Sunni elites hate and fear Iran and its proxies, and have more bad blood with them, than with Israel and America. It's that simple. Palestinians have also made themselves extremely disliked. Kuwait ethnically cleansed 500,000+ as recently as the 90s and Quaddafi also ethnically cleansed his. In Jordan they almost tipped the country into civil war and in Lebanon they did. Egypt was offered the Sinai back many times and the sticking point was that they didn't want to take Gaza with it (even though they, like the other Arabs, had previously held it under military rule and forced the Palestinians into squalid camps while denying them citizenship). The blood has always been bad.

>>1517595
>Attacking terrorists lobbing missiles into your cities is aggression.
>Lobbing missiles at civilians is not doin nothin.

>>1517617
If Israel wasn't a rabid dog, then this would be vital for our long term survival. We pick our favorite tribe in the desert, fight a proxy war using them to subjugate one of the largest oil reserves in the world we don't control, and in the event of a nuclear war, we blow it up, so the other superpowers can't use it to power their war machines.

In a sane world we'd put pressure on Bibi to step down and cut off all aid to Israel until he does, because he's a warmongering fuckhead who is basically just their trump. We'd also reform our government to make sure an overt conman can't take it over again.

I mean hell, when you consider the billions of dollars people in trump's orbit have enriched themselves by, in a 'sane' world we'd be storming these people's homes with torches and pitchforks, dragging their families into the streets and sawing their heads off as a warning to future robber barons. So scratch that, let's not call that last world sane, this shit is fucking crazy, let's call it a world where we preserve decorum.

>>1517626
That's true I still remember Chuck schumers quote "I'm in office to make sure the Democrats stick with Israel.".

Comment he made when Mamandi didn't go to the Israel parade in NYC but he did.

>>1517598
Because of zionism, and zionism is a foreign intelligence operation.
Trump explicitly stated that miriam adelson controls foreign policy for America.
The nazis were right, jews control America.

>>1517627
Ethnic cleansing has a legal definition which is in no way as broadly applied as you’re intimating here.

>>1517637
Chuck Schumer is also a jew. A jew in politics is always going to default to supporting Israel, regardless of party.

>>1517627
Egypt has the entire Sinai Peninsula right now you idiot. Why do you lie about such an easy thing to factcheck

>>1517598
Because jews control America via christianity, blackmail, and bribery.

>>1517638
It’s Zionists not Jews. It’s important distinction, it’s like calling all Americans MAGA or every German a Nazi. There’s also more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists, that’s a fact.

>>1517643
>jews control christianity
ok schizo

>>1517645
You might not be captain current events, but Israel just aired a bunch of European, American, and Asian church leaders performing a struggle session on live TV, bemoaning that christians weren't doing more for jews.

>>1517644
Zionist and jews are the same thing, per the jews themselves.

>>1517646
Yes and that doesn’t prove they control Christianity. Are you suggesting the Pope is with Mossad?

>>1517648
Only Zionists say this, every ethno-nationalist says that about their own people

>>1517641
This isn’t true. There are Jews like Bernie Sanders for example

>>1517652
Henry Ford was correct in that if I criticize a Zionist, an atheist jew will defend them.

>>1517651
Yes it does, actually. Name a denomination that stands against them. You can't. Church leaders slobbering on Israeli knobs is the norm, not the exception.

Heres your pope by the way
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-12/pope-leo-xiv-president-israel-phone-call-peace-antisemitism.html

Israel can flatten 180,000 people and kill tens of thousands of children, but don't you dare say meany words about it.

>>1517642
It's not a lie you just have shit tier reading comprehension. He's saying the Jews wanted them to take Gaza back to get the Sinai, which is a well known fact. They eventually gave it back to them anyhow in exchange for other things they wanted.

>>1517640
>Forcible deportations with asset seizure and rapes/mob violence of hundreds of thousands isn't ethnic cleansing because Arabs were doing it to other Arabs.

Yes, I know the lib response is "Arabs gonna Arab," whenever they do it themselves. Yawn.

>>1517654
>if I criticise an ethno-nationalist another ethno-nationalist will defend him
Obviously

>>1517657
Post some proof instead of your hurt durr lib this and lib that bullshit. Convince me with facts and realities, like I don’t even know why you’d even bother responding the way you did it makes you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about

>>1517653
Bernie is an atheist Jew who doesn’t defend Zionism. I’m not going to say anything disparaging about Henry Ford because he knew what he knew at the time but come the fuck on you can’t use that as an argument >>1517654

>>1517651
There are more Christians than just Catholics but yeah, most of the mainstream ones and the overwhelming majority aren’t Zionists.

>>1517656
The lie is that the Egyptians didn’t refuse it because of the dirty Palestinians.

>>1517644
Zionism as a movement only became real in the late 1800's through the jews themselves. It began with people like Emma Lazarus shilling pro-jewish migration to the US by creating 'give me your tired, your hungry your poor' etc and the rothschilds paying Scofield to write the Scofield Bible, which perpetuated dispensationalism and the pro-jewish evangelical movement that dominates conservative politics.
Epstein confirmed a lot of this shit too. He literally said in the emails that his race works as a cohesive unit to do shit like sell pornography and bet on futures that they rigged themselves. Same shit that happened in Weimar germany.
If you google who owns Pornhub, OnlyFans etc and read the Epstein files it stops being a conspiracy theory.

>>1517654
>Name a denomination that stands against them. You can't.
Orthodox.

>>1517663
That’s all fine until you start bringing race into it. It’s not all the Jews, it’s not even most of them. Zionist control is not a conspiracy theory it’s a fact. Conflating Zionism with all Jews on the other hand is first off inaccurate and secondly it plays into the argument that the Zionists themselves make, it’s a Zionist talking point if you like

>>1517667
>It’s not all the Jews, it’s not even most of them
It's still always them though.

>>1517682
No, sometimes it’s the Germans

>>1517687
Would they call themselves germans?

>>1517667
lol someone needs to study WWI and WWII.

>>1517541
The IDF Generals have lost the script. They're moving the line on the map, but its only exposing their forces to more drone attacks from the rear. Literal meat grinder.

I can't tell if the IDF are retarded, or if they're being forced into this death march by powerful outside forces.

>>1517667
>Conflating Zionism with all Jews on the other hand is first off inaccurate and secondly it plays into the argument that the Zionists themselves make
This is true. But it doesn't change anything because the Hasidic Jews that hate Israel still think the goy are slave cattle and they are free to do whatever they want to them. They still scam the welfare system on an industrial scale, they still cry ANTISEMITE whenever they're caught and try to ruin anyone who dares hold them accountable. They still practice human trafficking, organ smuggling, and build tunnels under your cities.

>>1517667
>it’s not even most of them
lol who told you that?