BEIRUT — In the Middle Ages, it was a stronghold for Crusaders, and then for the armies of Saladin who drove the Crusaders out.
Over the centuries came many others, including the Ottomans, the French and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The latter used it to aim mortars and Katyusha rockets at northern Israel in 1982, and to thwart the Israeli troops who attempted to dislodge them and dubbed it the “monster on the mountain.”
Now, war once again has come to Lebanon’s Beaufort castle. Over the weekend, Israel announced that it had recaptured the outpost, built around 1137.
“Beaufort” comes from the Old French of “beau fort” or “bel fort” for beautiful fortress. In Arabic it’s called Qalaat al-Shaqif, or Castle of the High Rock.
Israel’s capture of Beaufort, which sits atop a ridge roughly 2,352 feet above sea level, grants it fire-control views of important highways over the Litani River and territories extending into Israel and Syria. It’s a commanding perch that has made the castle a prize.
Yet Israel’s capture of the fort, observers say, is more a public relations victory than a military one.
From a tactical standpoint, the fort is unlikely to deter Hezbollah’s new crop of attack drones, which rely on fiber-optic cables and are impervious to jamming. That was all too clear Monday, when the Israeli military announced that a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli position near Beaufort ridge killed one soldier and wounded three others.
“Even if you push Hezbollah’s line back, the soldiers will still be vulnerable to the same systems they’ve been hit with,” said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based fellow with the Atlantic Council and a long-time expert on Hezbollah.
Israel captured Beaufort in 1982 and held it during an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
And if past is prelude, any Israeli presence in Beaufort will become a favored target.
During the previous occupation, Israeli troops stationed at the outpost they established near Beaufort faced frequent attacks from militants who would eventually go on to form Hezbollah, with a constant barrage of antitank and mortar shells forcing soldiers into an underground existence in a reinforced bunker.
The roadway leading to the castle earned the name “the Bloody Route” for the sheer number of roadside bombs planted on it.
When Hezbollah and its allies forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, Israeli troops blew up the fortress before they left, reportedly in a bid to deny Hezbollah the public relations coup of placing its flag over the outpost.
The fort came to represent a failed invasion that many view as Israel’s Vietnam. Yet Israeli leaders appear to be following a strategy in place after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which views withdrawal from territory as a reprieve for the enemy. Israel now occupies chunks of territory it intends to use as buffer zones in southern Lebanon, southern Syria and Gaza.
“The return to Beaufort is an expression of correcting old national sins and distorted perceptions,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a right-wing member of the Israeli government who has long demanded a tougher stance in Lebanon and other territories.
“I will continue to demand and promote a permanent territorial conception and exceptional military aggressiveness.”
As in the 1982 war, it is unclear what a deeper incursion into Lebanese territory can achieve, analysts say. Hezbollah fighters will not stop, Blanford said, barring a deal that would have to include the group.
“At the end of the day, occupations tend to end. Fundamentally, there is no military solution for Hezbollah’s arms: The Israelis can occupy more of Lebanon, and Hezbollah will still attack them,” Blanford said.
“There needs to be a political solution, but we won’t see that soon.”
BEIRUT — In the Middle Ages, it was a stronghold for Crusaders, and then for the armies of Saladin who drove the Crusaders out.
Over the centuries came many others, including the Ottomans, the French and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The latter used it to aim mortars and Katyusha rockets at northern Israel in 1982, and to thwart the Israeli troops who attempted to dislodge them and dubbed it the “monster on the mountain.”
Now, war once again has come to Lebanon’s Beaufort castle. Over the weekend, Israel announced that it had recaptured the outpost, built around 1137.
“Beaufort” comes from the Old French of “beau fort” or “bel fort” for beautiful fortress. In Arabic it’s called Qalaat al-Shaqif, or Castle of the High Rock.
Israel’s capture of Beaufort, which sits atop a ridge roughly 2,352 feet above sea level, grants it fire-control views of important highways over the Litani River and territories extending into Israel and Syria. It’s a commanding perch that has made the castle a prize.
Yet Israel’s capture of the fort, observers say, is more a public relations victory than a military one.
From a tactical standpoint, the fort is unlikely to deter Hezbollah’s new crop of attack drones, which rely on fiber-optic cables and are impervious to jamming. That was all too clear Monday, when the Israeli military announced that a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli position near Beaufort ridge killed one soldier and wounded three others.
“Even if you push Hezbollah’s line back, the soldiers will still be vulnerable to the same systems they’ve been hit with,” said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based fellow with the Atlantic Council and a long-time expert on Hezbollah.
Israel captured Beaufort in 1982 and held it during an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
And if past is prelude, any Israeli presence in Beaufort will become a favored target.
During the previous occupation, Israeli troops stationed at the outpost they established near Beaufort faced frequent attacks from militants who would eventually go on to form Hezbollah, with a constant barrage of antitank and mortar shells forcing soldiers into an underground existence in a reinforced bunker.
The roadway leading to the castle earned the name “the Bloody Route” for the sheer number of roadside bombs planted on it.
When Hezbollah and its allies forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, Israeli troops blew up the fortress before they left, reportedly in a bid to deny Hezbollah the public relations coup of placing its flag over the outpost.
The fort came to represent a failed invasion that many view as Israel’s Vietnam. Yet Israeli leaders appear to be following a strategy in place after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which views withdrawal from territory as a reprieve for the enemy. Israel now occupies chunks of territory it intends to use as buffer zones in southern Lebanon, southern Syria and Gaza.
“The return to Beaufort is an expression of correcting old national sins and distorted perceptions,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a right-wing member of the Israeli government who has long demanded a tougher stance in Lebanon and other territories.
“I will continue to demand and promote a permanent territorial conception and exceptional military aggressiveness.”
As in the 1982 war, it is unclear what a deeper incursion into Lebanese territory can achieve, analysts say. Hezbollah fighters will not stop, Blanford said, barring a deal that would have to include the group.
“At the end of the day, occupations tend to end. Fundamentally, there is no military solution for Hezbollah’s arms: The Israelis can occupy more of Lebanon, and Hezbollah will still attack them,” Blanford said.
“There needs to be a political solution, but we won’t see that soon.”
BEIRUT — In the Middle Ages, it was a stronghold for Crusaders, and then for the armies of Saladin who drove the Crusaders out.
Over the centuries came many others, including the Ottomans, the French and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The latter used it to aim mortars and Katyusha rockets at northern Israel in 1982, and to thwart the Israeli troops who attempted to dislodge them and dubbed it the “monster on the mountain.”
Now, war once again has come to Lebanon’s Beaufort castle. Over the weekend, Israel announced that it had recaptured the outpost, built around 1137.
“Beaufort” comes from the Old French of “beau fort” or “bel fort” for beautiful fortress. In Arabic it’s called Qalaat al-Shaqif, or Castle of the High Rock.
Israel’s capture of Beaufort, which sits atop a ridge roughly 2,352 feet above sea level, grants it fire-control views of important highways over the Litani River and territories extending into Israel and Syria. It’s a commanding perch that has made the castle a prize.
Yet Israel’s capture of the fort, observers say, is more a public relations victory than a military one.
From a tactical standpoint, the fort is unlikely to deter Hezbollah’s new crop of attack drones, which rely on fiber-optic cables and are impervious to jamming. That was all too clear Monday, when the Israeli military announced that a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli position near Beaufort ridge killed one soldier and wounded three others.
“Even if you push Hezbollah’s line back, the soldiers will still be vulnerable to the same systems they’ve been hit with,” said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based fellow with the Atlantic Council and a long-time expert on Hezbollah.
Israel captured Beaufort in 1982 and held it during an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
And if past is prelude, any Israeli presence in Beaufort will become a favored target.
During the previous occupation, Israeli troops stationed at the outpost they established near Beaufort faced frequent attacks from militants who would eventually go on to form Hezbollah, with a constant barrage of antitank and mortar shells forcing soldiers into an underground existence in a reinforced bunker.
The roadway leading to the castle earned the name “the Bloody Route” for the sheer number of roadside bombs planted on it.
When Hezbollah and its allies forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, Israeli troops blew up the fortress before they left, reportedly in a bid to deny Hezbollah the public relations coup of placing its flag over the outpost.
The fort came to represent a failed invasion that many view as Israel’s Vietnam. Yet Israeli leaders appear to be following a strategy in place after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which views withdrawal from territory as a reprieve for the enemy. Israel now occupies chunks of territory it intends to use as buffer zones in southern Lebanon, southern Syria and Gaza.
“The return to Beaufort is an expression of correcting old national sins and distorted perceptions,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a right-wing member of the Israeli government who has long demanded a tougher stance in Lebanon and other territories.
“I will continue to demand and promote a permanent territorial conception and exceptional military aggressiveness.”
As in the 1982 war, it is unclear what a deeper incursion into Lebanese territory can achieve, analysts say. Hezbollah fighters will not stop, Blanford said, barring a deal that would have to include the group.
“At the end of the day, occupations tend to end. Fundamentally, there is no military solution for Hezbollah’s arms: The Israelis can occupy more of Lebanon, and Hezbollah will still attack them,” Blanford said.
“There needs to be a political solution, but we won’t see that soon.”
BEIRUT — In the Middle Ages, it was a stronghold for Crusaders, and then for the armies of Saladin who drove the Crusaders out.
Over the centuries came many others, including the Ottomans, the French and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The latter used it to aim mortars and Katyusha rockets at northern Israel in 1982, and to thwart the Israeli troops who attempted to dislodge them and dubbed it the “monster on the mountain.”
Now, war once again has come to Lebanon’s Beaufort castle. Over the weekend, Israel announced that it had recaptured the outpost, built around 1137.
“Beaufort” comes from the Old French of “beau fort” or “bel fort” for beautiful fortress. In Arabic it’s called Qalaat al-Shaqif, or Castle of the High Rock.
Israel’s capture of Beaufort, which sits atop a ridge roughly 2,352 feet above sea level, grants it fire-control views of important highways over the Litani River and territories extending into Israel and Syria. It’s a commanding perch that has made the castle a prize.
Yet Israel’s capture of the fort, observers say, is more a public relations victory than a military one.
From a tactical standpoint, the fort is unlikely to deter Hezbollah’s new crop of attack drones, which rely on fiber-optic cables and are impervious to jamming. That was all too clear Monday, when the Israeli military announced that a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli position near Beaufort ridge killed one soldier and wounded three others.
“Even if you push Hezbollah’s line back, the soldiers will still be vulnerable to the same systems they’ve been hit with,” said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based fellow with the Atlantic Council and a long-time expert on Hezbollah.
Israel captured Beaufort in 1982 and held it during an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
And if past is prelude, any Israeli presence in Beaufort will become a favored target.
During the previous occupation, Israeli troops stationed at the outpost they established near Beaufort faced frequent attacks from militants who would eventually go on to form Hezbollah, with a constant barrage of antitank and mortar shells forcing soldiers into an underground existence in a reinforced bunker.
The roadway leading to the castle earned the name “the Bloody Route” for the sheer number of roadside bombs planted on it.
When Hezbollah and its allies forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, Israeli troops blew up the fortress before they left, reportedly in a bid to deny Hezbollah the public relations coup of placing its flag over the outpost.
The fort came to represent a failed invasion that many view as Israel’s Vietnam. Yet Israeli leaders appear to be following a strategy in place after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which views withdrawal from territory as a reprieve for the enemy. Israel now occupies chunks of territory it intends to use as buffer zones in southern Lebanon, southern Syria and Gaza.
“The return to Beaufort is an expression of correcting old national sins and distorted perceptions,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a right-wing member of the Israeli government who has long demanded a tougher stance in Lebanon and other territories.
“I will continue to demand and promote a permanent territorial conception and exceptional military aggressiveness.”
As in the 1982 war, it is unclear what a deeper incursion into Lebanese territory can achieve, analysts say. Hezbollah fighters will not stop, Blanford said, barring a deal that would have to include the group.
“At the end of the day, occupations tend to end. Fundamentally, there is no military solution for Hezbollah’s arms: The Israelis can occupy more of Lebanon, and Hezbollah will still attack them,” Blanford said.
“There needs to be a political solution, but we won’t see that soon.”
