Hezbollah’s Secret Base EXPOSED at UNESCO Site

Silhouettes of individuals against a yellow wall featuring Hezbollah's emblem

Israel’s military has struck Hezbollah infrastructure near Beaufort Castle — a nearly 900-year-old Crusader fortress in southern Lebanon — reigniting a centuries-old debate about war, heritage, and a terror group that has long used historic sites as cover for its operations.

Story Snapshot

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck Hezbollah underground military infrastructure near Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, describing the site as a hub for managing Hezbollah’s fire and defense operations.
Beaufort Castle, a nearly 900-year-old Crusader-era fortress, received UNESCO enhanced protection status in 2024, drawing international criticism over the strikes.
The castle and surrounding region have a well-documented history of use by armed militant groups, including the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hezbollah, dating back decades.
Israel’s broader bombing campaign in southern Lebanon has intensified, with strikes killing dozens and expanding ground operations in the region.

Israel Targets Hezbollah’s Underground Network Near the Castle

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched strikes targeting Hezbollah underground military infrastructure and weapons sites in southern Lebanon near Beaufort Castle. The IDF described the targeted location as “a hub for managing the fire and defense array” for Hezbollah and identified it as part of an underground complex that had been previously struck in earlier Israeli operations. Israeli jets cited renewed militant activity as justification for the latest round of attacks.

The strikes near Beaufort Castle are part of a broader and intensifying Israeli campaign in southern Lebanon. Reporting confirms that Israeli bombardment in the region has been among the heaviest in weeks, with strikes killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens more. An Israeli airstrike also hit the neighboring village of Arnoun, and ground operations have continued to expand throughout the south of the country.

A Castle With a Long History of Militant Use

Beaufort Castle’s entanglement with armed conflict is not new. In 1976, the Palestine Liberation Organization used the castle as a base to fire rockets into Israel. Israeli forces captured the fortress during the 1982 Lebanon War, and it was later handed over to the South Lebanon Army before Hezbollah took control of the surrounding area. The castle has been attacked dozens of times by Israeli forces over the past several decades, making the current strikes part of a much longer pattern.

The castle’s commanding hilltop position above the Shia village of Arnoun makes it strategically valuable to any armed group operating in the region. That geographic reality has repeatedly drawn militant organizations to the site. Critics who frame the Israeli strikes purely as an attack on cultural heritage often overlook this documented history of the castle being used as a military asset by groups actively targeting Israeli civilians.

UNESCO Protection Versus Military Necessity

UNESCO described Beaufort Castle as one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the region and granted it enhanced protection status in 2024. That designation has fueled international outrage, with critics accusing Israel of destroying irreplaceable world heritage. Under international humanitarian law, however, the critical legal question is not whether a site is historically significant, but whether it is actively being used for military purposes and whether adequate precautions were taken to minimize civilian and heritage damage.

Israel’s position — that Hezbollah embedded military infrastructure at and around the castle — is consistent with the terror group’s well-established tactic of using civilian and cultural sites as operational cover. Independent verification of the precise target set remains difficult because the most granular evidence is typically classified or requires on-the-ground forensic review. What is clear is that Hezbollah’s deliberate use of protected areas as military staging grounds places both civilians and historic sites at risk — and that responsibility cannot be placed solely at Israel’s door.