JERUSALEM, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that its troops had captured a strategic castle in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the IDF said Israeli ground forces had entered the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi Saluki area in southern Lebanon.

Israel's state-owned Kan TV News and Channel 12 News reported that the Israeli army had seized the ridge, including the strategic castle at its summit, in what they described as Israel's deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years.