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European leaders have condemned Israel’s expanding incursion into Lebanon, after its military captured the medieval Beaufort castle and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to push even deeper into the country.

France’s president Emmanuel Macron called for an end to fighting, saying “nothing justifies the major escalation under way in south Lebanon”. The country’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, has requested a meeting of the UN security council for Monday.

The foreign ministers of the UK and Germany joined France in condemning the new operation. Britain’s Yvette Cooper called for the ceasefire that has been in place between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah since April to be respected. The US-brokered truce to halt the fighting between both sides has rarely been observed.

Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah, which has a strong political presence in southern Lebanon and has launched thousands of missiles and drones into northern Israel. Israel’s campaign has forced more than a million people from their homes, while 3,300 people, including dozens of children, have been killed.

The current conflict began in March, after Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader. Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, on Saturday accused Israel of “implementing a policy of total destruction of cities and towns”.

Netanyahu has called Sunday’s capture of Beaufort castle a “dramatic shift” in the campaign against Hezbollah. Israeli forces used the Beaufort castle, also known as Qalaat al-Shaqif, as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.

The castle offers views across Lebanon and into northern Israel. It was built as a crusader castle around the 12th century and later occupied by Saladin’s Jerusalem army, the Ottomans, the French and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

In a video statement released after the military took Beaufort, Netanyahu said “We have returned united, determined and stronger than ever.

“Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold in places that were under Hezbollah’s control.”

Netanyahu noted the historic significance of the castle, which the military first seized in 1982, calling it a “symbol of a heroic battle for our fighters.”

But some experts have questioned the strategic significance of the capture, and said its capture amounted to little more than a public relations coup.

The military’s presence there will not solve the issue with Hezbollah, Orna Mizrahi, a former deputy director in Israel’s national security council, told the Associated Press. “We are damaging them in the operations, but in parallel we need to pursue a political and diplomatic solution,” Mizrahi said.

Talks between senior officials from Israel and Lebanon began in April in Washington, the first in more than three decades between the countries, which have no formal diplomatic relations. Those discussions are set to continue this week, but Hezbollah is not taking part and has said it will not accept any results.

Israel’s latest advance and the continuing violence in Lebanon also present a challenge in efforts to secure a lasting peace agreement between the US and Iran. Tehran has continued to insist that any agreement to extend the current ceasefire with Washington and return shipping to the strait of Hormuz must include an end to fighting in Lebanon as well.

Observers have suggested Israeli officials and military commanders want to inflict as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before a potential deal imposes new limits or stops the current offensive.

With Agence France-Presse