JERUSALEM – Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on May 31 that the military had captured the strategic medieval fortress of Beaufort in southern Lebanon, where it is expanding ground operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
“Forty-four years after the heroic Battle of Beaufort, and on this day commemorating the soldiers who fell in the First Lebanon War (1982), our troops have returned to the summit of Beaufort and once again raised the Israeli flag there,” he said on his Telegram channel.
“Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and my direction, the IDF expanded the operations in Lebanon, crossed the Litani River, and captured the Beaufort Ridge – one of the most important strategic points for defending the communities of the Galilee and safeguarding the security of our forces.”
AFP footage from the morning of May 31 showed the Israeli army flag raised above the citadel, with shelling audible and smoke rising from the surrounding area.
The fortress commands sweeping views of south Lebanon, making it a position of considerable strategic value.
Israeli forces used the castle, also known as Qalaat al-Shakif, as a base during their previous occupation of southern Lebanon, which lasted nearly two decades before ending in 2000.
The Israeli army also announced on May 31 that one of its soldiers had been killed the previous day by a Hezbollah explosive drone in southern Lebanon, bringing to 25 the number of Israeli military deaths since early March.
Staff Sergeant Michael Tyukin, 21, “fell in combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a brief statement. An army spokesman told AFP he was killed by a Hezbollah drone strike.
In total, 25 Israelis have been killed – 24 soldiers and one civilian contractor – since hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah resumed on March 2, when the Shiite militant group reopened thr front in support of Tehran, following Israeli-US strikes. AFP
