IDF ground troops have crossed the Litani River, entering and securing the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi al-Saluki areas of southern Lebanon, the military announced on Sunday morning.
The operation began several days ago with the goal of eliminating the threat Hezbollah poses to the citizens of northern Israel, and is currently expanding to additional areas.
Ahead of the troops' entry, the Israel Air Force conducted extensive support strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.
Support fire for the ground troops also included artillery and tank fire.
Further, the IDF added that it is operating near Nabatieh, a significant Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, and is prepared to expand its operations there as well.
Defense Minister Israel Katz applauded the IDF's achievement of reaching the Beaufort Ridge in a Sunday X/Twitter post.
"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," Katz wrote.
"I salute the Golani soldiers and all IDF troops who wrote another chapter of Israeli heroism in the place where our heroes fell for the homeland," he said, noting that the "campaign is not yet over" and that the military is "determined to crush Hezbollah's power and complete the mission: ensuring security for the residents of the North."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the IDF's taking of the Beaufort Ridge a correction of "national sins and distorted perceptions."
Further, he said that he would "continue to demand and promote a permanent seizure of territory and extraordinary military aggressiveness."
"I emphasize again: for every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut should fall," he said.
First IDF presence in Beaufort Ridge in 26 years
During the First Lebanon War in 1982, the IDF's 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 Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon on the order of former prime minister Ehud Barak.
