Middle East

1440 -   Israel has seized control of Beaufort, a medieval castle in Lebanon, several miles from the Israeli border. The capture marks the farthest Israeli soldiers have ventured into the country since their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon ended in 2000.  The news comes as Israel and Lebanon continue negotiations to end the weekslong hostilities. Lebanon agreed in 2024 to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group based largely in southern Lebanon. However, violence broke out again between Hezbollah and Israel in March, with Hezbollah launching rockets in response to Israeli attacks on Iran. Israel has since carried out airstrikes and invaded southern Lebanon, killing more than 3,300 people and displacing more than 1.2 million, according to the latest estimates. (See background on the conflict here.)  The war between Israel and Hezbollah could have implications for the US war with Iran; Iran has said any peace deal with the US must also end the war in Lebanon.

NPR -The war in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the militant group Hezbollah, could undermine efforts to end the war in Iran, NPR's Greg Myre tells Up First. Israeli forces captured a 900-year-old hilltop castle in southern Lebanon over the weekend as part of Israel's deepest push into the country in decades. Israel says Hezbollah was using the area to fire on nearby northern Israel. Iran has issued almost daily statements supporting Hezbollah and says peace efforts must address wars in both Iran and Lebanon, Myre says. But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he wants Israeli forces to keep going in Lebanon.

The Hill -   President Trump’s serious consideration of a peace deal with Iran that would open the Strait of Hormuz but also ease sanctions on Iran, a longtime U.S. adversary, is pitting Republican against Republican in a messy debate that will take over the Senate this week.  Defense hawks led by Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have panned the emerging deal with Iran, which Trump has yet to sign off on.

At the same time, several Republican senators who are deeply skeptical about the Trump administration’s handling of the conflict and who have complained about the lack of a clear endgame are eager to end hostilities and restore the flow of oil, fertilizer and other goods through the Strait of Hormuz as quickly as possible.

NBC News -  The U.S. military said it carried out what it called self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and drone control sites over the weekend, while Tehran said it targeted an air base used in the U.S. attack. U.S. Central Command last night said that the strikes had been carried out “in response to aggressive Iranian actions,” saying the country had shot down an American drone that was operating over international waters.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said today that its aerospace force had targeted the source of what it called a U.S. attack on a telecommunications tower. The IRGC said that if American attacks continued, its response would be “completely different” and Washington would be responsible for the consequences.

Meanwhile, a U.S. official said yesterday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun as part of ongoing diplomatic negotiations.