Israeli soldiers have captured a strategic hilltop crowned by the Crusader castle of Beaufort in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military announced on Sunday, part of the most sweeping Israeli invasion in the country in decades.
The seizure of Beaufort, while hailed by Israel’s top leaders, also evoked bitter memories in both countries of the repeated battles fought there during the nearly two-decade Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Israel finally withdrew in 2000 after a bloody insurgency led by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.
Neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese government had an immediate response to the Israeli military’s announcement.
Now, more than a quarter century later, Hezbollah is once again fighting a guerrilla war against invading Israeli forces; Israeli leaders openly discuss a return to a long-term Israeli “security belt” in Lebanon to fend off Hezbollah attacks; and an Israeli flag flutters over the fortress at Beaufort.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, hailed the conquest of Beaufort on Sunday as a “dramatic step” and vowed that Israeli forces would continue advancing in Lebanon. But military experts said neither move would likely stop Hezbollah from firing rockets and drones at its invading army or Israeli cities.
Instead, said Haim Har-Zahav, an Israeli writer who fought in the Israeli-occupied zone in the 1990s, the fort’s capture reflected how Israel could be barreling toward the same kind of occupation and war of attrition with Hezbollah that Mr. Har-Zahav and many other Israelis now see as a strategic disaster.
Beaufort itself, a majestic fortress that overlooks the Litani River in southern Lebanon, ultimately became “a symbol for the entire Israeli presence in Lebanon,” he added. It was later popularized by an Oscar-nominated movie.
The fighting in Lebanon has also rattled the efforts to reach an agreement to end the war that Israel and the United States began against Iran in late February. Iran has demanded a cease-fire between Israel and its ally Hezbollah as part of the talks, leading President Trump to declare a truce there in April.
Nearly two months later, however, the cease-fire has effectively broken down amid surging clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. More than one million Lebanese are still displaced according to the United Nations, many of them following Israeli evacuation orders.
Israeli forces attack in Lebanon on a daily basis in strikes they say are targeting Hezbollah, killing hundreds of people since the cease-fire was announced, including civilians, according to Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah has killed roughly a dozen Israeli soldiers since the nominal truce went into effect last month, the Israeli military says.
Mr. Netanyahu has come under increasing domestic pressure to ramp up Israeli attacks in Lebanon. But analysts say his options are limited to avoid upsetting Mr. Trump, who has prioritized his negotiations to end the war with Iran.
Beaufort is part of a history of deadly fighting between Israel and its adversaries. Israel attacked the hilltop on the first night of its 1982 invasion of Lebanon against the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Israeli forces stayed in southern Lebanon for nearly two decades as Hezbollah and its allies pummeled Israeli outposts like Beaufort with mortars and ultimately forced Israel to withdraw. In the years since, Hezbollah has fought multiple wars with Israel, most recently in 2024.
The latest round of fighting began in early March, when Hezbollah fired several rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with its patron Iran. The United States and Israel had attacked Iran several days earlier, igniting the monthslong conflict in the Middle East.
Since the war began, Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah has killed more than 3,000 people in all, according to the Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel continued on Sunday, with the militant group claiming several rocket attacks that sent air-raid sirens wailing in cities and towns in northern Israel.
