Israel Seizes Beaufort Castle: Troops Push Deep Into Lebanon

The ancient hilltop fort, captured nearly 1,000 years earlier by Crusaders, still offered the same sweeping panoramic views of south Lebanon and the Litani River that empires fought over for a millennia.

Now at war once more ‌with the Iran-backed Shi'ite group, Israel returns to the Crusader-built stronghold – a UNESCO-registered cultural site – in a campaign that has devastated the surrounding country, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The Israeli military has captured Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle, a medieval hilltop fortress in the country’s south, amid an expanded military offensive against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

As Israeli forces push deeper into southern Lebanon than at any point since the end of their occupation in 2000, the seizure of Beaufort Castle has powerful symbolic resonance within the history of the conflict.