Israeli forces take Beaufort Castle as Lebanon's strikes continue

Israeli airstrikes across eastern and southern Lebanon killed at least 31 people and injured dozens more on May 26. Hezbollah and Israel both reported intensified ground operations and cross-border attacks despite an existing ceasefire. The day's toll was a single snapshot on top of a war that had already passed 3,000 dead earlier in the month.

Israel said it had killed the new military chief of Hamas, Mohamed Odeh, 11 days after his predecessor was killed. Hamas and Israeli defense minister Israel Katz later confirmed that Al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Odeh was killed in a strike on May 26 near Gaza City, along with his wife and three children. The two spellings appeared in successive reports of the same killing.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israeli forces to seize 70 percent of the Gaza Strip. An air raid killed ten people, including four children, in northern Gaza. The military also announced the killing of Ihab Khrizim, described as a leader of a Hamas funds-transfer network, in a strike in the Khan Yunis area.

On the Lebanon front, at least 19 people, including two children, were killed in Israeli attacks in the south. Three people, including two children, were later killed and fifteen injured in a strike in Choueifat in Mount Lebanon. Israeli troops were reported near Beaufort Castle as they approached the outskirts of Nabatieh.

United States secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese president Joseph Aoun and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a new ceasefire, including an end to Hezbollah attacks in exchange for Israel not escalating in Beirut. Israeli forces then captured the Beaufort medieval castle in Nabatieh Governorate during a ground offensive despite a temporary ceasefire. Eight people were killed and 19 injured in a strike on Deir ez-Zahrani, and Hezbollah launched drones and more than 50 rockets at northern Israel.

The New York Times reported that Central Command had guided 70 commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz in the previous three weeks on routes closer to the Omani coast. A United States Army soldier and a British soldier from the Royal Anglian Regiment were reported dead after a training exercise at Harir Air Base in Erbil. Those deaths were recorded as a training loss, separate from the Lebanon ground advance.