Beaufort Castle, whose name comes from the French beau fort, “beautiful fortress,” is a well-known Lebanese landmark.
It was a key objective when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and became an IDF post that was chronicled in the 2007 film Beaufort, based on a 2005 novel.
The fortress dominates the area around it. It is part of Lebanon’s Nabatiya Governorate. It was recently captured again by Israel, this time taken from Hezbollah. The fortress is only a few kilometers from the border of Israel, but retaking the area was not undertaken in the early days of the conflict with Hezbollah.
Journalists recently visited Beaufort with the IDF. The numerous accounts paint a picture of an area used by Hezbollah. The terror organization, with Iranian funding and support, tunneled underground. Hezbollah’s tunnel system included operating rooms and numerous weapons. The tunnel system extends beneath the ridge the castle was built on.
In essence, though, Hezbollah used this area for the same reason the Crusaders did: it was a strategic location that dominated the surrounding terrain.
What was found in the tunnels near the castle appears to indicate a large-scale engineering project and substantial investment. Reports also indicate this system of tunnels would have taken many years to complete. The tunnels had to be cut into rock, not dug out from the sand, as in Gaza. This was complex.
What does the story of Beaufort teach us?
The site is a symbol, and it has been for decades. It’s a symbol of the wider challenge of southern Lebanon. Why was it taken in 1982? Because it was already being used by terrorists.
Lebanon has failed to secure this area for decades. In 1982, the excuse was that the country had fallen into civil war in 1976 and the terrorists had exploited this. At the time, Palestinian terrorist groups were the threat. After 1982, the threat became Hezbollah.
However, the Lebanese state was supposed to be rebuilt following the 1989 Taif Accords, which ended the civil war. When Israel left southern Lebanon in 2000, chronicled in the 2007 film, the Lebanese government was supposed to return. A key part of Lebanon’s return was supposed to be linked to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deployment in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL was created in 1978 after the Israeli Litani operation, which was yet another Israeli operation against terrorism in southern Lebanon. At the time of its establishment, the mission was primarily to monitor the Israeli withdrawal and help Lebanon reestablish its authority.
What happened? We know what happened. UNIFIL has never been able to do anything of substance in southern Lebanon. It had many opportunities.
You can find maps of the UNIFIL deployment online. For instance, an August 2024 map shows how UNIFIL carpeted southern Lebanon with various posts. One could be forgiven for looking at the map and imagining this was a robust force. There are symbols for dozens of units; there is even a naval component.
There are little military symbols for headquarters units, and for forces from Tanzania, Italy, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Korea, Ghana, Malaysia, Ireland, Poland, Spain, and other countries.
One might be deceived here because if you looked at a plan for Operation Overlord, the codename for the Allied invasion of France in 1944, the plans of Overlord look less complex than the UNIFIL deployment. Yet, Overlord actually accomplished something.
For all the dozens of unit symbols on the map of UNIFIL’s deployment, the organization doesn’t seem to have accomplished anything at all.
In fact, it may have been counterproductive because the illusion of UNIFIL meant that the international community could pretend Hezbollah wasn’t a problem. Hezbollah exploited the presence of UNIFIL to dig into southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese government also used the presence of UNIFIL to avoid its obligations. In essence, UNIFIL's cover enabled Hezbollah to grow exponentially. Without the umbrella of excuses provided by the United Nations, Hezbollah might have had to be more reticent, and everyone couldn’t have turned to UNIFIL as an excuse to do nothing over the last decades.
What was accomplished by the presence of UNIFIL? It didn’t reduce Hezbollah’s presence.
The fact that in 2024 its deployment was still so robust and yet Hezbollah was attacking Israel every day is an example of how it didn’t do anything. If there had been no UN presence in Lebanon, would Hezbollah have been stronger? It is unlikely.
What does Beaufort have to do with this? Beaufort doesn’t appear to be in the UNIFIL zone, by virtue of the fact that it is situated to the north of the Litani River.
The villages on the other side were in the UN zone. For instance, Taybeh, Kfar Kela, and Deir Mimas. According to the 2024 deployment, the UN had a post north of Kfar Kela and another just west of the village.
They also had another post near Taybeh. These posts included a boundary that separated Spain’s units from Indonesia's. The battalion boundary is south of Beaufort. Beaufort would have looked down on these UN areas.
Lebanon dragging its feet didn't help, it ruined their lives
One might have thought that if the UN wasn’t responsible for the castle and the ridge it sits on, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) might have had a post there.
I mean, if the Crusaders chose this area to overlook the surrounding region, then maybe the Lebanese Armed Forces would want to deploy there.
There is a tourist site there, so maybe it would be good to protect it? But no. The LAF didn’t bother to make sure Hezbollah didn’t control this area, either.
Herein lies the whole symbol of Lebanon in microcosm. A strategic and historic fortress. A well-known site. An area that had already been contested between Israel and terrorist groups since 1982.
And yet, neither UNIFIL nor the Lebanese government could prevent Hezbollah, with Iranian regime backing, from blasting tunnels into the area. Decades of work carried out by Hezbollah - with all sorts of weapons and machinery - and nothing was done. Since October 8, when Hezbollah began attacking Israel, it used this area to carry out numerous attacks.
Today, Lebanon is being asked to send its forces into several small pilot zones in southern Lebanon. It is being asked to do the most basic thing a state does: to control its own territory.
It isn’t like Hezbollah was running away from UNIFIL and the LAF in some complex cat-and-mouse. It was blasting tunnels into mountains under a major fortress that everyone knew about. This wasn’t in some hidden swamp somewhere that no one can find on a map.
The question now is whether Lebanon can finally step up and control its own territory. The Lebanese people have suffered from the failure of UNIFIL and Lebanon to do their jobs. Numerous villages have now been destroyed.
All the foot-dragging didn’t help the Lebanese; it ruined their lives. There is now an opportunity to avoid entering another cycle that began decades ago in the 1970s.
Will we have Beaufort redux again? Or will this be the end of it?