At the state memorial ceremony on Sunday for the fallen soldiers of the First Lebanon War, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced the raising of Israeli and Golani Brigade flags over the Beaufort Ridge and said that soldiers will remain at Beaufort Castle as part of the IDF’s new expanded security zone in southern Lebanon.
The move comes 44 years after the historic Battle of Beaufort, during which six commanders and soldiers of the Golani Brigade were killed during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and 26 years after ex-prime minister Ehud Barak’s withdrawal from its security zone in southern Lebanon.
“Twenty-six years after the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, the Israeli flag once again flies over the peaks overlooking the yishuvim of the Galil,” Katz said. “Twenty-six years after the withdrawal, our heroic soldiers have captured Beaufort once again, and will remain there as part of the security zone in Lebanon.”
Reflecting a strategy he summarized as “a jihadist enemy understands only one language — the taking of territory and the destruction of homes,” he said the IDF is destroying villages near the border that it says served as Hezbollah strongholds. He added that thousands of terrorists had been killed, hundreds of square kilometers had been seized, and forces continue clearing the area of fighters, weapons, and infrastructure above and below ground.
Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich responded to the IDF’s capture of Beaufort Castle by stating: “Israel’s security is strengthened through strength, not through surrender and withdrawals. We promised the brave residents of the north long-term security, and we are acting decisively to achieve this.”
“The return to the Beaufort is an expression of the rectification of old national sins and distorted conceptions. We fled Lebanon and received the disaster of the Second Lebanon War and Hezbollah’s buildup to monstrous dimensions, which we are now forced to eliminate through arduous battles.
“We fled from Gush Katif and the Gaza Strip and received the disaster of October 7.
“The left offers withdrawals and weakness. Its keyboard warriors only recently ran a reckless campaign calling on us to surrender to Hamas and withdraw from Gaza while abandoning the security of southern residents. We did not surrender, and we will not surrender to these weaknesses.
“I will continue to demand and advance a doctrine of permanent territorial control and exceptional military aggressiveness.”
“The costs of war are high, but necessary for Israel’s security and future. I want to send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Givati reconnaissance soldier Staff Sgt. Michael Tyukin, H’yd, who fell in battle.
“I repeat and emphasize: for every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut should fall. Israel must change the equation.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
