Israeli soldiers took control of the Beaufort Ridge outpost and Wadi al-Saluki areas north of the Litani River, the IDF reported Sunday morning.
Nevertheless, Hezbollah managed to shower the North with drones and more than 50 rockets throughout the day.
Last Tuesday, in response to ongoing Hezbollah drone attacks that have killed and wounded an increasing number of soldiers, the IDF said it had invaded deeper into Lebanon beyond the April 17 ceasefire Yellow Line and the Litani River.
Ahead of the infantry advance, the IAF, artillery, and tanks conducted extensive support strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in the area to reduce resistance.
Furthermore, the IDF said it was operating near Nabatiya, another significant Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, and is prepared to expand its operations there as well.
דגלי ישראל וגולני מתנוססים על הבופור בדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/5i14WWYUhk
— איתי בלומנטל 🇮🇱 Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) May 31, 2026
Nabatiya would be the farthest that IDF ground forces have advanced, around 20 kilometers from the Israeli border. On April 17, when the ceasefire began, IDF forces were about 10 km. from the border.
On Sunday, Hezbollah fired rockets and drones at Nahariya, Acre, Tel Dan, Beit Hillel, Kiryat Shmona, Safed, Ma’alot, and many other areas in the Galilee. Air-raid sirens were activated.
Hezbollah also targeted many of the same places and Karmiel on Saturday.
There were no reports of casualties on Sunday. An increasing number of civilians were evacuating those areas, especially with schools suspending classes recently.
Firefighters battled large fires in Tel Dan and Beit Hillel, where four people were wounded, according to reports.
For about a week after the April 17 ceasefire, Israel and Hezbollah significantly reduced hostilities, but then they started gradually escalating.
The IDF wanted to escalate to put more pressure on Hezbollah to agree to disarm. Hezbollah wanted to escalate because it viewed continued IDF operations against its forces in parts of southern Lebanon the IDF had taken control over as a violation of the ceasefire.
‘Today, we returned to Beaufort differently.’
Initially, Hezbollah struck back on a limited basis mostly against IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.
As Hezbollah FPV (first-person view) drones started to wound more soldiers, however, this encouraged Hezbollah to launch more of them. In response, the IDF launched more aggressive attacks against Hezbollah.
When neither side backed down, the IDF started to invade Lebanon beyond the Litani River, including large-scale airstrikes in Tye and the Bekaa Valley, and even one time in Beirut, and Hezbollah started to fire more rockets and drones at Israeli towns and villages.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited the IDF’s tactical advances against Hezbollah.
“Today, we returned to Beaufort differently,” he said. “We returned united, determined, and stronger than ever. I spoke with the fighters on the northern border on Friday. They told me: ‘Tell the people of Israel what we are doing here. Prime Minister, the public doesn’t know what achievements we have made.’”
The IDF had killed 8,000 Hezbollah terrorists since the start of the war, including about 3,000 since the start of Operation Roaring Lion and 700 in the past month, Netanyahu said.
“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic change in the policy we are leading,” he said. “We have broken the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative. We are operating on all fronts – in Syria, in Gaza, in Lebanon. We have established security zones beyond our borders to protect our communities.”
הלוחמים הגיבורים שלנו כבשו את הבופור ואנחנו ממשיכים עד שנשלים את המשימה pic.twitter.com/j0oBy2z9cG
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 31, 2026
Netanyahu indicated that the IDF might hold Lebanese territory even beyond the Litani River to put pressure on Hezbollah to disarm, although many experts believe the Lebanese terrorist group will not yield.
The number of Hezbollah fighters killed since the ceasefire had risen to 900, the IDF reported Sunday night.
The IDF’s taking of Beaufort Ridge was a correction of “national sins and distorted perceptions,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday, adding that he would “continue to demand and promote a permanent seizure of territory and extraordinary military aggressiveness.”
“I emphasize again: For every explosive drone, 10 buildings in Beirut should fall,” Smotrich said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday praised the IDF’s taking of Beaufort Ridge.
“Forty-four years after the heroic battle for the Beaufort, and on the memorial day for those who fell during the [First Lebanon War], including Golani Brigade soldiers who fell in the battle for the Beaufort – IDF fighters, led by the Golani Brigade, returned to the peak of the Beaufort and raised the flag of Israel and the flag of Golani over it once again,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
First IDF presence in Beaufort Ridge in 26 years
During the First Lebanon War in 1982, the Golani Reconnaissance Unit captured the outpost from terrorists who had been using the site to launch rockets toward the Galilee.
The IDF held the outpost until May 2000, when former prime minister Ehud Barak ordered Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
Several hundred Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon over 18 years, but the withdrawal provided a vacuum for Hezbollah to build up its threats against Israel.
