'They never saw us': how IDF tanks slipped past Hezbollah to take Beaufort (ynetnews.com)

Exactly 44 years after I first climbed Beaufort during the First Lebanon War, I returned to the fortress, its imposing cliffs and the breathtaking view over the Litani, the Saluki and Nabatieh. This time, I walked across that combustible ground during a fragile ceasefire, alert to every sound. Beaufort is part of my biography. Sometimes it recedes into the background; sometimes it returns with a sharp reminder. During the First Lebanon War, I was called up for reserve duty as an officer in the Military Police investigations unit. In June 1982, after 60 days of service, I set out with several of my soldiers for a trip through Lebanon. “We have to get to Beaufort and see Lebanon and Israel from there,” I urged them as we climbed toward the Crusader fortress, 717 meters above sea level. After marveling at a landscape that reminded us of Switzerland, I posed for a photograph with two fellow reservists, Sgt. First Class Yehoshua Zada and Sgt. First Class Yitzhak Gos. About four months later, on the morning of November 11, 1982, they were killed along with 74 other soldiers beneath the ruins of the government building in Tyre where we served. A suicide...