The capture of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, came after days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages where Israeli troops fought Hezbollah members in the rugged area.
Its capture marks a major development in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the US and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.
Israel has since launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border.
Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington from Tuesday.
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted photographs on X showing Israeli troops walking outside the castle, and Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that they raised an Israeli flag over the castle.
Israeli troops previously captured the castle in 1982 and held it until they withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
“Twenty-six years after the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, the Israeli flag has returned to fly on the peaks that overlook the Galilee towns,” Katz said on Sunday at a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in its previous occupation of southern Lebanon.
Katz said Israel intends to hold the castle as its troops work to destroy thousands more homes that he says were used by Hezbollah and other military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
The Beaufort fortress, perched high atop Lebanon’s rolling green hills and overlooking the Litani River, has been a strategic military asset for centuries.
Built as a Crusader castle around the 12th century on top of previous fortifications, it has also been used by Saladin’s Jerusalem army, Mamluks, Ottomans, the French mandate, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli military until 2000, when it was partially restored and opened to visitors. The Crusaders named it Beaufort, which is Old French for “beautiful fortress.”
The 1982 capture of the castle from the PLO was a major victory for the Israeli military that was led at the time by Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister. At the time, the Israeli army pushed all the way north and occupied Beirut.
During the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, Unesco gave enhanced protection to 34 cultural sites in Lebanon including Beaufort Castle to safeguard them from damage.
The castle is a few kilometres north of the Israel border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon and northern Israel. In Arabic, it is called Al-Shaqif castle, an old Syriac word referring to the formidable rocky area.
Beaufort is symbolic across the region, including in Israel, where it was one of the most well-known places Israel controlled during the 18-year occupation. One of Israel’s most well-known war films, “Beaufort,” explores the moral questions and reservations and the futility of war, in the last days before the military withdrew.
In recent days, Israel has expanded the scope of its operations in Lebanon, sending troops across the Litani River, which previously served as a de-facto boundary, and demanding that residents leave much of southern Lebanon.
“The occupation of Beaufort is a dramatic stage, and a dramatic shift in the policies we are leading,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, citing the military occupation of security zones in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza along Israel’s borders.
He said Israel has killed 3,000 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war.
Hezbollah has not disclosed the number of their casualties.
Israel has designated the area from the Litani up to the Zahrani River a combat zone. Some residents have already left the area due to intense strikes in recent days, but people remain. (AP)
