The Israeli navy has captured Lebanon’s Beaufort Fort, a medieval hilltop fortress within the nation’s south, amid an expanded navy offensive in opposition to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The seize, introduced on Sunday, comes amid preventing regardless of a “ceasefire” between Israel and Lebanon, which Israel has repeatedly violated.
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“The Israeli flag is as soon as once more flying over the peaks overlooking the Galilee communities,” Defence Minister Israel Katz stated at a memorial ceremony for fallen troopers of the 1982 conflict with Lebanon, in keeping with The Instances of Israel newspaper.
“Our heroic troopers have captured Beaufort as soon as once more and can stay there as a part of the safety zone in Lebanon,” he was quoted as saying.
Katz circulated a photograph on social media of the fort with the Israeli flag and in addition that of the navy’s Golani Brigade.
So what’s Beaufort Fort, how did Israel seize it and why does it matter?
What’s Beaufort Fort?
Beaufort Fort, identified in Arabic as Qalaat al-Shaqif, is a 900-year-old fortress positioned on a rocky hilltop in southern Lebanon, about 700 metres (2,300ft) above sea stage. Constructed through the twelfth century by Crusaders, the fort overlooks the Litani River.
The Crusaders named the fort Beaufort, which implies “stunning fortress” in Previous French.
Over the centuries, the fortress has modified arms a number of occasions, passing from Crusader rulers to numerous regional powers, together with the Ottoman Empire. Traditionally, its elevated place made it probably the most necessary defensive strongholds within the area, permitting whoever managed it to watch motion throughout a big space of southern Lebanon.
In more moderen years, Palestinian fighters used the positioning as a base earlier than Israel captured it throughout its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israeli forces then occupied the fort as a part of their safety zone in southern Lebanon till withdrawing from the realm in 2000.
What’s the strategic significance of Beaufort Fort?
Sitting atop a strategic hill close to Nabatieh, Lebanon’s fifth largest metropolis, Beaufort Fort and the encompassing ridge, which Israeli forces have additionally secured, is considered one in all southern Lebanon’s most strategically necessary navy positions.
The seize of the fort affords Israeli troops an statement level over a big a part of southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Israeli officers stated the operation was aimed toward dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure and securing excessive floor near the Israeli border.
Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon, stated the seize of the fort provides the Israeli forces “a major tactical benefit in opposition to Hezbollah”.
“It overlooks all the cities and villages which are across the metropolis of Nabatieh. It additionally seems over the western Bekaa Valley, all the best way into the occupied Golan Heights and into northern Galilee,” he reported.
“Folks listed below are extraordinarily involved that this operation goes to develop much more due to the vantage level that the Israelis now have.”
What is occurring in southern Lebanon now?
In accordance with the newest figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Well being, greater than 3,412 folks have been killed and 10,269 wounded in Israeli assaults on the nation since March 2.
Israeli forces captured Beaufort Fort after days of preventing and air strikes in villages surrounding the fortress. Troops superior via the rugged terrain close to Nabatieh, the place clashes with Hezbollah fighters had been happening.
Israeli forces killed a minimum of 12 folks and wounded 35 in additional than 36 assaults throughout southern Lebanon on Sunday alone, in keeping with an Al Jazeera tally.
Israel has already occupied giant swaths of southern Lebanon since preventing escalated after the US-Israel conflict on Iran started on February 28. Israeli forces now occupy about 2,000sq km (770sq miles) of Lebanese territory – almost one-fifth of the nation.
Iran-backed Hezbollah entered the conflict by launching rockets, missiles and drones in the direction of a missile defence web site close to Haifa in northern Israel on March 2 in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei within the conflict’s first strike on Tehran.
Till then, the Iran-backed group had not attacked Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire was introduced, regardless of near-daily breaches of the settlement by Israel.
Final week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a fair deeper navy operation into Lebanon, marking Israel’s farthest invasion into its northern neighbour in additional than 1 / 4 of a century.
On Sunday, Netanyahu stated he once more “instructed the Israeli navy to develop the manoeuvre in Lebanon”.
“Now my instruction is to deepen and develop our grip on the locations that have been beneath Hezbollah’s management,” he stated throughout a go to to the entrance traces.
On Monday, Israel issued a pressured displacement order to residents of seven villages in southern Lebanon, together with Houmine al-Faouqa, Bnaafoul, Arab Salim, Roumine, Aazze, Arkey and Jbaa.
The military’s Arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, introduced in a put up on X that residents should transfer away instantly from the affected space by 1,000 metres (3,280 ft) as Israel plans to assault.
