Israel seizes 12th-century Crusader fortress in deepest Lebanon incursion in decades

Beirut: Israeli troops captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said.

The taking of Beaufort Castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, on Sunday (Beirut time) followed days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants.

The capture marked a major Israeli advance 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.

Since then, Israel has 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.

The advance also presents a challenge in the United States’ emerging deal to extend the Iran war ceasefire as Tehran wants any agreement to end fighting in Lebanon, too.

The Lebanese parliamentary Speaker, Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, said he could guarantee the militant group’s “full, comprehensive and immediate commitment to a ceasefire”.

“But who will force Israel to stop its aggression?” he said in a statement on his television station, NBN.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Israeli military operations in Lebanon, which he described as “unacceptable”.

“Nothing can justify the prolongation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its increasingly deep occupation of Lebanese territory,” Barrot said on French television BFM TV.

A historic and strategic fortress

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 posted that they raised an Israeli flag over the castle. Israeli troops had 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.

Katz said Israel intended to hold the castle as its troops worked to destroy thousands more homes that he said were used by Hezbollah, and other military infrastructure, in southern Lebanon.

Talal Atrissi, a sociology professor at the Lebanese University and an analyst who is close to Hezbollah, said the photo of the Israeli flag over the castle was intended as a message to Israeli society that the military was managing to achieve goals in Lebanon despite the challenges posed by Hezbollah’s use of drones.

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 and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). 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, which was led by then-defence minister Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister. At the time, the Israeli army pushed all the way north and occupied Beirut.

In 2000, the castle was partially restored and opened to visitors. 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 border with Israel 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.

Israel expands invasion in Lebanon

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 had killed 3000 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war. Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualty numbers.

Israel has designated the area from the Litani up to the Zahrani River as a combat zone. Some residents have already left the area due to intense strikes in recent days, but people remain.

Israeli troops have been advancing for days in villages close to Beaufort Castle. They are now about five kilometres from Nabatiyeh, a major centre in southern Lebanon. They have called on people to leave that area, as well as the coastal city of Tyre, the country’s fourth-largest city, and its surroundings.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or the Lebanese government on the Israeli push.

The expanded operation would give Israel an upper hand in coming talks with Lebanon to take place in Washington, said Beirut geopolitical analyst Joe Macaron.

“We are at a tipping point,” Macaron said, adding that it was still too early to say how Hezbollah would react to the loss of land. “The more land [the Israeli military] can grab before the ceasefire, the more they can impose conditions on Hezbollah before their withdrawal.”

Trump sends tougher demands back to Iran

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump had toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war with Iran and sent those proposed changes back to Tehran for consideration, The New York Times reported, citing three officials.

The nature of the changes was not clear, but they could be intended to accelerate the process by putting pressure on Iran to accept the framework already sent to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the Times said.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which has close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said exchanges of messages between Iran and the US were ongoing and that the two sides were still proposing changes.

It added that no agreement had been reached and that it was possible any deal could collapse. “Everything being said now is speculation and should not be given importance,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to Tasnim.

The two countries again exchanged strikes as negotiations continued.

US Central Command said its fighter aircraft struck Iranian air defences, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones “that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters”. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had targeted a US base in response, without identifying which one.

Air defences in Kuwait, where a major US base is located, were intercepting missile and drone attacks on Monday as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency KUNA reported, without providing further details.

AP, Bloomberg, Reuters

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