Arnoun, Lebanon
“Until we see signs of the Lebanese Army coming to disarm them, we’re keeping the knife to Hezbollah’s neck,” an officer of the Israel Defense Forces’ 36th Armored Division said. We were speaking last week at Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, where the division is deployed. The 36th conquered this ground in May from the Iranian proxy Shiite Islamist organization in a large-scale operation. The flag of the Golani infantry Brigade, a ground combat component of the division, now flies over Beaufort’s 12th-century tower.
The 36th Division’s maneuver was one of the IDF’s most complex ground operations in recent years. It involved capturing and destroying a complex system of tunnels, built on Hezbollah’s behalf and at Iran’s behest by North Korean engineers over the past decade.
The IDF operation isn’t finished, despite the pride expressed by the division’s commanders at their troops’ performance. The June cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel came with a few Hezbollah men still holed up in two tunnels outside the city of Nabatiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. The division’s commanders at Beaufort Castle don’t expect the cease-fire to last—and have scant hope for an agreement with the Beirut government.
Israel’s deployment in southern Lebanon is part of a larger strategy Jerusalem has developed since the massacres of Oct. 7, 2023. It involves establishing Israeli areas of control on borders with territory held by Islamist organizations.
Published originally on July 12, 2026.
Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.
