Israeli soldiers planted their national flag and the banner of the Golani Brigade over Beaufort Castle on Sunday, capturing the hilltop fortress that commands sweeping views across southern Lebanon and the upper Galilee as the army pressed its largest ground operation in the country in more than two decades. Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed the seizure, declaring that "our brave soldiers have captured the Beaufort once again — and they will remain there as part of the security zone in Lebanon."
The castle, known locally as Qal'at al-Shaqif or Shaqif Arnun, sits on a steep ridge above the Litani river near the village of Arnoun in Nabatieh Governorate. Built during the Crusader era in the 12th century, UNESCO describes it as one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the Near East. Its strategic value has outlived its walls: whoever holds the height can observe and dominate a wide arc of the surrounding valleys, which is why it has changed hands repeatedly in the modern wars fought across this ground.
Sunday's capture marked Israel's deepest incursion into Lebanon in more than 26 years, carrying troops past the Litani — the line that has anchored ceasefire arrangements since the 2006 war. Israel previously seized Beaufort in 1982 and held it through its long occupation of the south before withdrawing in 2000. The army's return to the site, this time as part of a declared intention to remain, signalled an open-ended posture rather than a raid.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered forces deeper into Lebanon as part of the offensive, which Israel casts as a campaign against Hezbollah positions south of the Litani. The military issued fresh displacement orders for villages in the area ahead of the advance, instructing residents to move north and warning of operations in populated zones. Lebanese officials and residents reported strikes around the castle and nearby heritage sites in the hours before the flags went up.
The advance unfolded despite a truce that was meant to wind down hostilities along the frontier, and it drew immediate concern from governments that had backed the ceasefire framework. The expansion of ground operations beyond the river complicates diplomatic efforts to stabilise the border and raises the prospect of a prolonged Israeli presence on Lebanese soil, a scenario Beirut has rejected and that Hezbollah has vowed to resist.
For Israel, the seizure of Beaufort carries a symbolic weight that exceeds its tactical importance. The fortress looms large in the country's military memory as a place where soldiers fought and died in 1982, and returning to it allows the government to frame the current campaign as the recovery of hard-won ground. For Lebanon, the same image — foreign flags over an ancient national landmark — lands as a fresh humiliation and a reminder of how far the conflict has moved from the negotiated lines.
What happens next will depend less on the castle than on the wider war around it. Israeli officials spoke of consolidating a buffer that keeps Hezbollah fighters away from the border communities of the north, while saying little about how long troops would stay or under what terms they might leave. With forces now dug in above the Litani and displacement orders still in force, the southern Lebanese landscape that Beaufort overlooks faces the prospect of another extended occupation.