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The Israel Defence Forces announced the capture of Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle oregon Qalaat al-Shaqif connected June 1, 2026. In an authoritative statement, the IDF confirmed the seizure and said that the cognition was carried retired by Israel’s Golani Brigade on the castle’s ridge country to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure.
Why has Lebanon’s Beaufort castle been captured?
Israel has been carrying retired a crushed penetration of Lebanon, with devastating aerial strikes, from aboriginal March. Fighting continued betwixt Israel and Hezbollah contempt a ceasefire announced by U.S. president Donald Trump connected April 17.
Beaufort Castle’s seizure by Israel is important arsenic it sits atop a precocious upland ridge and overlooks immense expanses of confederate Lebanon and bluish Israel, making it an important subject asset. It overlooks the Litani River vale and is conscionable extracurricular the large metropolis of Nabatiyeh.
The IDF has stated that the cognition to seizure the Beaufort was to wide retired the Hezbollah infrastructure and destruct “direct threats to Israeli civilians.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said their fighters were inactive actively battling Israeli troops adjacent Beaufort Castle, describing the concern arsenic a “battle of attrition.”
President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, has condemned the seizure and said that “Lebanon is facing a fierce and condemned Israeli aggression.”
Beaufort Castle - a humanities timeline
Members of Israeli troops astatine the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle successful Nabatieh Governorate, confederate Lebanon, successful this screengrab from a handout video released connected May 31, 2026. | Photo Credit: Israeli military
- 1139 construction: The astir 889-year-old operation was built by the European Crusaders astir the 12th period C.E. and has changed hands aggregate times since then.
- Capture by Saladin: The castle was captured from the Crusaders by Muslim subject commandant Saladin who cemented its relation arsenic a stronghold of historical empires betwixt 1189 and 1190.
- Changing of hands: Over the years, it has been captured by the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and yet the French. The alteration of hands from the Mamluks, an elite radical of enslaved soldiers to the Ottoman Empire and the eventual autumn of the castle to the French colonisers saw the enhancement of its strategical value arsenic a subject asset.
- Palestine’s capture: During the 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organisation oregon the PLO, took the fortress and launched rocket attacks into Northern Israel.
- 1982 Israeli capture: During the penetration of Lebanon by Israel, the subject captured the castle from the P.L.O. A celebrated infinitesimal successful past is the Israelis raising their emblem connected the structure, marking a important stroke to the Palestinian side. A constituent to enactment is that Israel’s Golani Brigade is the aforesaid IDF militia that took the fort again successful 2026.
- 2000: After 18 years of usage by Israel’s subject arsenic a awesome of its spot and a people of Hezbollah, the Israelis withdrew from the area, blew up their bunkers, and abandoned the castle to beryllium yet taken implicit by Hezbollah. It besides became a UNESCO-protected tourer attraction.
- 2026: The Israelis seizure the fort again, marking the biggest escalation of hostilities and the deepest subject incursion into Lebanon by Israel since the dawn of the millennium.
Geographical advantage
Map showing Beaufort Castle successful orangish with the Lebanon-Israel borderline to the south.
Beaufort Castle is geographically strategical arsenic it sits conscionable North of the planetary borderline with Israel and a precise abbreviated region from the Lebanese metropolis of Nabatiyeh, which is simply a large economic, political, and taste hub. Several forces, including the Israeli subject and Hezbollah, person utilized the fort to encircle the important centres of commercialized successful the state and arsenic a starting constituent for imaginable subject excursions into bluish Lebanon.
Beaufort’s topographical advantage
The castle has a 1000-foot oregon 300m vertical driblet owing to a steep upland and is frankincense impenetrable from that side, a cardinal origin for the powers(now Israel) controlling the fortress.
The vertical cliff besides gives an fantabulous vantage constituent for inter-border subject strikes, launching of dense artillery, and surveilling valleys.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the West Asia warfare connected March 2 by firing rockets astatine Israel successful retaliation for the US-Israeli sidesplitting of Iran’s ultimate leader.
