After 26 years, IDF retakes Lebanon's Beaufort fortress
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Political correspondent Tal Schneider joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
As northern Israel was battered by a barrage of rockets from Hezbollah over the weekend, Schneider discusses ongoing criticism of the government for allowing the situation to continue, while noting that Israel's hands are tied; it can't disrupt US negotiations with Iran, and that regime controls Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Schneider also talks about Beaufort Castle, a strategic fortress in Lebanon last controlled by Israel in 2000 and now taken by the IDF once again.
The Knesset will vote Monday on whether to dissolve this government, and will choose one of several possible dates for elections in September or October, as Schneider reviews the options.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Soldier killed in Hezbollah drone strike in Lebanon; IDF captures strategic Beaufort Castle
Plurality of far-right voters oppose government with ultra-Orthodox parties — poll
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Political correspondent Tal Schneider joins host Jessica Steinberg for Daily Briefing podcast (ToI)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, welcome to the Times Visual Daily Briefing. |
| 0:06.2 | It's Sunday, May 31st. |
| 0:07.8 | I'm Jessica Steinberg, here today with my colleague, political correspondent. |
| 0:12.1 | Tal Schneider, Tal, hi, good morning. |
| 0:13.8 | Hi, Jessica, good morning. |
| 0:15.1 | Hi. |
| 0:16.6 | We are going to talk about the very intensive and grave situation in Israel's north. |
| 0:22.1 | An IDF soldier, Mikhail Tukin, was killed by a Chazbalah drone as troops captured |
| 0:29.1 | the strategic Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon. |
| 0:33.0 | There are thousands of schoolchildren who are home today in the north amid this unending barrage of |
| 0:39.9 | Chazbalah attacks over the course of the weekend. So as I said, we'll talk about that. We'll also |
| 0:44.6 | talk about what's going on in the Knesset as there is an expected vote on dismantling the Knesset, |
| 0:51.7 | the 25th Knesset, and setting a date for elections. Stay with us. |
| 0:59.7 | This October 7th massacre was a national grieving. And for me, I chose the model of work, work, work, work, work. |
| 1:12.6 | Hi, I'm Mania Marcus, host of What Came After. Last November, I sat down with Amanda Borschal Don, |
| 1:19.6 | the deputy editor of the Times of Israel, someone who, especially for this audience, probably needs no introduction. |
| 1:25.6 | Amanda is one of my heroes in journalism. Her podcast, |
| 1:29.5 | the daily briefing, kept me sane in the many months following October 7th. In our discussion, |
| 1:34.5 | she speaks about work as therapy and how she, as an Israeli, manages to continue to report the story |
| 1:40.5 | from within this story. And for probably months and months of just being in a haze, I just worked as hard as I could. |
| 1:49.0 | I look back at that period, I did probably even double what I'm doing now, and I find it |
| 1:53.8 | impossible that I could have done that. |
... |
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