France has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort castle in southern Lebanon, the French foreign minister said, RFI reported on May 31.

"I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council because, while we recognise Israel's right, like that of all countries, to self-defence, nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory," Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told broadcaster BFMTV.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push deeper into Lebanon after the military took the castle, calling it a dramatic shift in the campaign against Hezbollah. "Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold in places that were under Hezbollah's control," he said in a video statement.

The Iran-backed group said it had targeted Israeli army positions and infrastructure in Shlomi and Nahariya in northern Israel, while air raid sirens sounded in the Acre area.

Israeli forces had used Beaufort, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, as a base during their two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000. Defence Minister Israel Katz said troops had captured the strongpoint, which commands views across south Lebanon, as ground operations expanded.

The advance came as the Israeli military issued a sweeping evacuation order for areas south of the Zahrani River, north of the Litani and about 40 kilometres from the border, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in Tyre and other areas. Lebanon's state National News Agency reported a series of strikes.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of pursuing a scorched-earth policy and collective punishment in the south, urging a halt to the fighting.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader, according to the source. A truce that began on April 17 has never held, with both sides accusing each other of violations.

Military delegations from Lebanon and Israel held security talks in Washington on May 29, with further US-brokered negotiations planned next week.

The Israeli army said one of its soldiers had been killed by a Hezbollah explosive drone, bringing to 25 the number of Israeli military deaths in Lebanon since early March. The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people in the same period.