IDF Pushes Deeper Into Lebanon to Neutralise Hezbollah Threat; Iran to Reestablish Hormuz Closure
The Israeli army continues to push deeper into southern Lebanon to neutralise the Hezbollah threat, according to the Jerusalem Post live updates. Iran has separately said it will reestablish closure of the Strait of Hormuz, blaming US tensions. The Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon are now operationally decoupled from the Iran-Israel pause; the IDF position at the Beaufort Castle / Beaufort Ridge / Wadi al-Saluki line beyond the Litani River is being extended further north. Hezbollah maintains the Thursday-week-ago rejection of the conditional Israel-Lebanon ceasefire.
The IDF deeper push into Lebanon comes despite Trump’s Wednesday-Thursday cancellation of the Iran strikes. The Iranian Hormuz-reestablishment framing makes the strait closure operational rather than rhetorical; if Hormuz stays closed through the weekend, Brent will reverse the Friday relief rally and test $100-105 again on the Sunday Asia open. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s Wednesday warning against getting stuck in Lebanon again — recalling his own 2000 withdrawal — framed the domestic Israeli political pressure on the operation. The Israeli defence minister’s “freedom to strike Beirut” framing from last week-ago remains the operational reality.