What is Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle, and why has Israel captured it?

Israeli officials said the operation was aimed at dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure and securing high ground close to the Israeli border.

Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon, said the capture of the castle gives the Israeli forces “a significant tactical advantage against Hezbollah”.

“It overlooks all of the towns and villages that are around the city of Nabatieh. It also looks over the western Bekaa Valley, all the way into the occupied Golan Heights and into northern Galilee,” he reported.

“People here are extremely concerned that this operation is going to expand even more because of the vantage point that the Israelis now have.”

What is happening in southern Lebanon now?

According to the latest figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, more than 3,412 people have been killed and 10,269 wounded in Israeli attacks on the country since March 2.

Israeli forces captured Beaufort Castle after days of fighting and air strikes in villages surrounding the fortress. Troops advanced through the rugged terrain near Nabatieh, where clashes with Hezbollah fighters had been taking place.

Israeli forces killed at least 12 people and wounded 35 in more than 36 attacks across southern Lebanon on Sunday alone, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Israel has already occupied large swaths of southern Lebanon since fighting escalated after the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28. Israeli forces now occupy about 2,000sq km (770sq miles) of Lebanese territory – nearly one-fifth of the country.

Iran-backed Hezbollah entered the war by launching rockets, missiles and drones towards a missile defence site near Haifa in northern Israel on March 2 in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the war’s first strike on Tehran.

Until then, the Iran-backed group had not attacked Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire was announced, despite near-daily breaches of the agreement by Israel.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an even deeper military operation into Lebanon, marking Israel’s farthest invasion into its northern neighbour in more than a quarter of a century.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said he again “instructed the Israeli military to expand the manoeuvre in Lebanon”.

“Now my instruction is to deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah’s control,” he said during a visit to the front lines.

On Monday, Israel issued a forced displacement order to residents of seven villages in southern Lebanon, including Houmine al-Faouqa, Bnaafoul, Arab Salim, Roumine, Aazze, Arkey and Jbaa.

The army’s Arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, announced in a post on X that residents must move away immediately from the affected area by 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) as Israel plans to attack.