Whoever’s king of this castle can decide the future of Israel and Lebanon

Israeli forces spent weeks fighting to retake the castle from Hezbollah.

The terror militia left the fortress after what seems to have been a plan of deception by Israel.

Iran’s proxy had transformed the ancient landmark into a heavily fortified military position.

Israel had previously held the site following the 1982 Lebanon War before withdrawing from southern Lebanon in 2000. A few weeks ago it came back into the hands of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Smoke rises from Israeli strike on Lebanese village of Yohmor behind Beaufort Castle in May (AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Hidden beneath the ridge of the fortress lies one of Hezbollah’s largest hidden tunnel networks, according to Israeli officials who say the network took around 15 years to build.

The entrance leads into an extensive warren stretching for approximately 1.2 kilometres.

Inside are living quarters, medical treatment rooms, showers and kitchens stocked with food and storage areas designed to sustain fighters underground for prolonged periods.

There was even a moped for speedy transport, and a library of books for fighters to read while killing time between operations.

Strategically, it couldn’t be better positioned for an attack on Israel. The IDF says tunnel entrances and firing positions were directed towards communities across the border with Lebanon.

Captain B, an officer from the elite Yahalom engineering unit, explained the tunnel network had been “masterminded, designed and funded by Iran”.

Many of the weapons were homemade in Lebanon but Captain B said he and colleagues saw “a lot of Iranian footprints, in design and also in the weaponry itself”.

It is difficult to reconcile the beauty of the ancient fortress in one of Lebanon’s most spectacular historical sites with what Israeli commanders describe as the evidence of years of planning for future terror attacks.

Journalist were allowed inside the underground complex for the first time last week.

Soldiers displayed what they said were Iranian-designed and Iranian-supplied weapons recovered from the site, including anti-tank guided missiles, longer-range missiles, assault rifles, anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-helicopter mines and explosive devices.

Officers said the facility had been used to launch explosive drones towards Israeli communities, a key example of how the inexpensive unmanned aircraft have become the new face of modern warfare.

IDF soldier with Hezbollah arsenal found in the tunnel[Missing Credit]

Sections of the tunnel network had been rigged with booby traps to slow advancing troops, IDF officials said. Many Israeli soldiers had lost their lives in the battle.

Beaufort is only one example of a much wider underground military infrastructure developed by Hezbollah across southern Lebanon. A few months ago, Israel revealed a tunnel beneath a clothes shop.

It has also found cross-border tunnels, many of which they have destroyed over the years.

Under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted after the 2006 Lebanon War, southern Lebanon was meant to remain free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons south of the Litani River.

The tunnel network demonstrates that the group ignored those commitments despite the presence of the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL.

Today Israeli officials say operations to locate and dismantle tunnels remain ongoing as they seek to push the Iran-backed group further from Israel’s northern border before any long-term security arrangements take hold.

Across southern Lebanon, the scars of months of fighting are impossible to ignore.

Entire villages have been devastated. Houses have been flattened, while others stand hollowed out by shells and bullets. Hezbollah flags still hang from shattered buildings in communities fought over by Israeli troops and the Iran-backed militant group.

Near Beaufort, the Golani Brigade’s insignia has been painted onto temporary structures, while its flag flies above the fortress that has changed hands so many times throughout history.

Just across the border, 6km away, life has yet to return to normal. Many residents of northern Israel remain displaced.

In Metula, only around 40 per cent of residents have returned. Those who have come back still live with the reality that they have only seconds to reach shelter if rockets are launched.

The truth on the ground is that while there is said to be ceasefire, the reality is very different, and Hezbollah is still clinging on in the south.

When Israel launched its latest ground operation, its military objective was clearly defined: to push Hezbollah back from northern Israel.

Yet many Israelis are conscious of history. Israel captured Beaufort from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in June 1982, maintained a military position beside it until withdrawing from Lebanon in May 2000, and captured it again on May 31, 2026.

Between 1985 and 2000, Israel maintained a security zone inside southern Lebanon, deploying thousands of troops alongside the South Lebanon Army in an effort to create a buffer against attacks.

What was intended as a temporary measure became a 15-year military deployment.

Israeli soldiers were killed year after year in ambushes, roadside bombs and guerrilla attacks, while Hezbollah emerged stronger politically and militarily, portraying itself as a resistance movement against occupation.

The deployment became deeply unpopular inside Israel before the eventual withdrawal in 2000.

Thousands of Lebanese who fought with the South Lebanon Army (SLA) were given refuge in Israel, and many remain there today.

Attention has now turned to a new US-brokered proposal designed to avoid repeating that history, which remains deeply traumatic for Israelis.

In the meantime, two “pilot” areas of southern Lebanon are set to be gradually transferred from Israeli control to the Lebanese Armed Forces rather than abandoned outright.

These “zones”, said to be implemented in the coming days, are intended to test whether the Lebanese state can establish authority, perhaps with the help of the international community.

Political leaders repeatedly insist that Israeli forces will remain beyond the border only as long as necessary.

Inside Israel there is fear of a familiar script that risks returning Israel to the days of the security zone. As talks resume in Rome this week, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, whose Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim group is not a party to the talks, said the negotiations were “shameless”.

He warned that towns in northern Israel would not be secure “as long as our villages are unsafe, bombed, destroyed, and our people are being killed”.

A ceasefire has not held despite several declarations of one from Washington in April.

Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, when the group opened fire in support of Tehran as it came under a joint US/Israeli attack. Yet Hezbollah has rejected any arrangement that would require it to disarm or abandon its military positions, and Israel says it will not withdraw until it believes its security is assured.

An Israeli official told the JC: “If Lebanon succeeds in freeing itself from Hezbollah and Iranian domination, this could become one of the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in Israel’s history, potentially even more consequential than the Abraham Accords.”

If Hezbollah is eventually removed as the dominant military force in southern Lebanon and the Lebanese state succeeds in reasserting its authority, Beaufort may come to symbolise the moment a centuries-old cycle finally began to break.

Should Lebanon one day join the Abraham Accords or reach a formal peace agreement with Israel, it would mark a transformation every bit as historic as the fortress itself.

A castle that has stood as a monument to centuries of war could instead become the backdrop to one of the Middle East’s most significant moments of peace.