Battle of the Beaufort (1982)

Battle of the Beaufort
Part of the 1982 Lebanon War
Beaufort Castle, Lebanon, 1982.
Date June 6, 1982 Location Beaufort Castle, Lebanon Result Strategic Israeli victory
Belligerents
Israel	PLO
Commanders and leaders
Moshe Kaplinsky Giora Harnik †	Yasser Arafat
Strength
23 men	30+ men
Casualties and losses
6 killed	15-24 killed

The Battle of the Beaufort was fought between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on June 6, 1982 over Beaufort Castle, Lebanon. It was one of the first clashes of the 1982 Lebanon War, and resulted in the IDF capturing the castle.

Located 717 meters above sea level, Beaufort Castle commands great parts of the Upper Galilee and South Lebanon. It could be used to direct artillery, and even Syria had sent artillery spotters there. Israel shelled the fortress repeatedly, but could never actually enter it - the massive basalt rocks of the Medieval construction proving an effective defense even in face of modern artillery and aerial bombardments. For Israel, it had become a symbol of the Palestinian power over the region. For the Palestinians, it served as a memento of Saladin's victory over the Crusaders in 1192 and of their own endurance against Israel, and the PLO used it as the colophon on leaflets.

Two weeks before the war started, Yasser Arafat visited the castle, sat down with its defenders and assured them that in thirty-six hours of fighting, the PLO could get a ceasefire. The sector commander protested, insisting that there was no way they could withstand an Israeli attack for so long.

The IDF Northern Command had been planning to capture the Beaufort for a long time before the war, designating the mission to Sayeret Golani, the commando unit of the Golani Brigade. The unit studied the castle and trained for tactics to conquer it.

However, the way the invasion progressed rendered the capture of the Beaufort unnecessary. Capture would have been necessary had the IDF decided to cross the Litani River via the al-Khardali Bridge, just below the fortress. But since the IDF instead decided to use the Akiye Bridge, located much further to the west, the Israelis could have proceeded to Nabatiye unaffected by the Beaufort. Since the PLO troops stationed in and around the castle were not firing at Israeli settlements when the war began, there was no urgent need to neutralize them. The General Staff issued a command to postpone the operation, but the command failed to reach the Sayeret.

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