Israel Captures Crusader Castle in Lebanon as Ground Offensive Expands

On May 31, 2026, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that "twenty-six years after the withdrawal...the Israeli flag has returned to fly on the peaks" [1]. The peaks in question belong to Beaufort Castle—a 900-year-old Crusader fortress perched atop a 300-meter cliff overlooking the Litani River in southern Lebanon. Its capture marks the deepest Israeli military penetration into Lebanese territory since the 2000 withdrawal and represents a sharp escalation of a ground offensive that has already displaced over 1.2 million people [2].

The operation comes despite a ceasefire agreement signed in April 2026 and while US-mediated peace talks between Israel and Lebanon were underway in Washington [3].

The Castle: Military Asset and Political Symbol

Beaufort Castle, known in Arabic as Qal'at al-Shaqif, sits in the Nabatiyeh Governorate roughly 14.5 kilometers from the Israeli border [1]. Built by Crusaders after King Fulk of Jerusalem captured the site in 1139, the fortress changed hands repeatedly—taken by Saladin in 1190, recaptured by Crusaders, and finally seized by Sultan Baibars in 1268 [4].

Its modern military significance stems from its commanding position. The castle overlooks both the Litani River valley and northern Israel, making it a natural observation and fire-control point. During Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon (Operation Peace for Galilee), Israeli forces took Beaufort from the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Battle of the Beaufort after heavy shelling [4]. The IDF then operated a forward operations base adjacent to the castle's western wall for 18 years, during which it endured sustained attacks from Hezbollah and the PLO [4].

When Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000, the departure from Beaufort carried enormous symbolic weight. Hezbollah immediately raised its flag over the ruins—a moment broadcast across the Arab world as a symbol of resistance. The castle's recapture in 2026 deliberately inverts that imagery [5].

UNESCO Protection and Legal Questions

In November 2024, as Israel's first ground offensive into Lebanon was underway, UNESCO granted Beaufort Castle provisional enhanced protection—the highest level of immunity under the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict [1]. The castle was one of 34 Lebanese cultural properties receiving this designation.

UNESCO has described Beaufort as "one of the best-preserved examples of medieval castles in the Near East" and noted it sustained "significant damage" during the 18-year Israeli occupation [6]. During the 2026 operations, Israeli forces struck the castle with bombs, causing additional damage to the remains [4].

Under international humanitarian law, enhanced protection prohibits both attacks on and military use of designated cultural properties. Israel's seizure and reported use of Beaufort as a military position appears to contravene these protections. France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot demanded an emergency UN Security Council meeting, calling the operations "unacceptable" [7]. Paris issued what was described as a "harsh condemnation" [8].

Scale of the Ground Offensive

The current operation represents a marked expansion from the initial October 2024 incursion, which Israel characterized as "limited" cross-border raids targeting Hezbollah infrastructure within a few kilometers of the border [9].

By March 2026, Netanyahu ordered the military to "further expand the existing security buffer zone," stating Israel was "determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north" [10]. Israeli forces have now advanced approximately 14.5 kilometers from the border—well beyond the Litani River in some sectors [2].

For comparison, during the 2006 Lebanon War, Israel's ground offensive—involving approximately 30,000 troops over 34 days—failed to push Hezbollah north of the Litani despite that being the stated objective. The Winograd Commission later deemed it a military failure [11]. The current operation has achieved greater territorial penetration with what reports indicate is approximately 15,000 troops initially deployed, later expanded [9].

Israel has announced plans to demolish Lebanese border villages and maintain control of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, employing what officials have called the "Gaza model" of occupation [10].

The Humanitarian Crisis

More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced since the offensive began—roughly one-sixth of Lebanon's population [10]. Israel has issued evacuation orders for areas between the Litani and Zahrani rivers, including the coastal city of Tyre [2].

Source: UNHCR / UN OCHA

Data as of May 31, 2026CSV

Since March 2, 2026, at least 1,238 people have been killed, including 124 children, with over 3,500 wounded [10]. The toll compounds casualties from the 2024 campaign, during which over 3,000 Lebanese were killed. Israeli operations have damaged 67 hospitals and forced over 150 health facilities to close [12].

Lebanon was already hosting more than one million Syrian refugees and 250,000 Palestinian refugees before the offensive—the highest number of refugees per capita in the world [12]. These populations are among the newly displaced.

Israel's Strategic Rationale

The Israeli government frames the offensive as a security necessity. Beginning on October 8, 2023—one day after Hamas's attack on southern Israel—Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in what it called solidarity with Gaza. Over the following year, approximately 60,000–80,000 Israeli civilians were displaced from northern communities, 45 were killed (including 12 Druze children in a soccer field attack), and economic activity in the region was devastated [13].

The IDF stated that the Beaufort operation specifically targets "operational control of the Beaufort Ridge and the Wadi al-Saluki area" and seeks to "dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure" [1]. More broadly, Israel's stated objectives are to prevent Hezbollah from maintaining positions south of the Litani from which it can target Israeli communities.

Human Rights Watch documented in March 2025 that Hezbollah attacks "endangered civilians" in northern Israel and that the group positioned military assets in proximity to civilian areas in southern Lebanon [14].

Independent military analysts have noted that a ground incursion carries strategic logic given the limitations of airpower alone against entrenched tunnel networks and rocket positions. Geopolitical analyst Joe Macaron assessed the Beaufort capture as "a tipping point," noting that territorial gains strengthen Israel's negotiating position before any withdrawal [2].

Hezbollah's Degraded but Persistent Capacity

The Israeli campaign has substantially reduced Hezbollah's military capabilities. The Alma Research and Education Center assessed in January 2026 that Hezbollah's rocket and missile arsenal had been reduced from an estimated 150,000 pre-war to approximately 25,000—consisting mostly of short- and medium-range rockets [15].

Source: IISS / Alma Research Center

Data as of Jan 1, 2026CSV

The command structure has been severely disrupted. Multiple senior leaders have been killed, including the elimination of Abu Ali Tabatabai in November 2025, which deepened what analysts describe as a "prolonged leadership crisis" alongside "significant weakening of mid-level command ranks" [15].

Hezbollah's resupply options have narrowed considerably since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in late 2024, which severed the primary overland weapons transfer route from Iran [15].

However, Hezbollah retains an estimated 40,000–50,000 active fighters and 30,000–50,000 reservists [15]. The group has deployed fiber-optic guided drones that have proven difficult for Israel to counter, triggering nearly 200 civilian alerts in northern Israel within a single 24-hour period during the Beaufort operation [2]. Rocket barrages continue to demonstrate what the Times of Israel described as the "remaining potency of Hezbollah's gutted arsenal" [16].

The Ceasefire That Wasn't

The current fighting occurs against a backdrop of multiple failed or violated ceasefire agreements. The first was signed on November 27, 2024, mandating a 60-day halt to hostilities, Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah's pullback north of the Litani [17].

UNIFIL (the UN Interim Force in Lebanon) reported that Israel violated the November 2024 ceasefire more than 10,000 times [18]. By November 2025, over 330 people had been killed since the ceasefire began [18].

On April 8, 2026, Israeli forces struck more than 150 locations simultaneously across Lebanon in what was described as a 10-minute onslaught, killing at least 303 people and wounding 1,150 [3]. A second ceasefire was agreed on April 17, 2026, yet Israeli operations have continued [2].

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, calls for no armed forces other than UNIFIL and the Lebanese military south of the Litani [17]. Both Israel and Hezbollah have violated its terms—Hezbollah by maintaining armed positions south of the Litani for nearly two decades, and Israel through repeated incursions and the current occupation of southern Lebanese territory [17].

Regional Responses and Peace Talks

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned Israeli attacks as "barbaric" and stated that "no one expected that the country once again to become the arena for the wars of others" [19]. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the Iranian IRGC is directing Hezbollah and that "this war was imposed on Lebanon" [19].

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of "persistently seeking to sabotage" regional stability [19]. France has been the most vocal Western critic, with its foreign minister calling the targeting of journalists—three were killed by an Israeli strike on a marked press vehicle in Jezzine—"a blatant violation of international law" [10].

Despite the military escalation, direct Israeli-Lebanese peace talks opened in Washington on April 14, 2026, with subsequent rounds on April 23 and May 14–15 [20]. Netanyahu announced on April 9 that the "political-security cabinet had directed the opening of contacts with the Lebanese government" [20]. The simultaneous pursuit of territorial expansion and diplomacy suggests Israel is seeking to negotiate from a position of maximum leverage.

What Comes Next

The capture of Beaufort Castle is both a military maneuver and a political statement. It demonstrates Israel's capacity to project force deep into Lebanon and signals that withdrawal will come only on Israeli terms. But the same dynamics that made the 18-year occupation (1982–2000) untenable—guerrilla resistance, international pressure, and domestic war fatigue—remain in play.

Source: UNHCR Population Data

Data as of Dec 31, 2025CSV

Lebanon already ranks among the world's most burdened states for hosting displaced populations. Syria, the top refugee-producing country globally with 5.5 million refugees abroad, shares a border with Lebanon and has been a source of instability for over a decade [21]. Adding another mass displacement event to this context compounds an already severe humanitarian situation.

The peace talks in Washington represent one possible off-ramp. But with Israeli forces still advancing, Hezbollah still firing rockets, and over a million Lebanese displaced, the gap between the battlefield and the negotiating table continues to widen.