Located 717 meters above sea level, Beaufort Castle (Arabic: قلعة الشقيف, romanized: Qal'at ash-Shaqif) commands great parts of the Upper Galilee and South Lebanon.

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.

[5] 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.

[8] The IDF Northern Command had been planning to capture the Beaufort for a long time before the war, assigning the mission to the commando unit of the Golani Brigade.

Israeli air force and artillery attacked the castle itself, al-Khardali Bridge, north-east, just below the fortress, as well as the nearby villages of Arnoun and Kfar Tebnit.

[11] The former commander of the Golani commandos, Giora (Guni) Harnik, had been discharged from the IDF just a week earlier, but was suddenly called back.

A number of fighters from Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), on training with Palestinian organizations in Lebanon, fought with the DFLP in Beaufort area.

But since the ground became covered with unexploded ordnance, exploding on touch like mines, access to the armoury and other supplies became risky and difficult.

[1] In the afternoon the Palestinian forces succeeded in shooting down an Israeli A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bomber flying over the Beaufort castle, with a Strela 2 (SA-7) handheld surface-to-air missile.

[16] The main IDF force in the central sector advanced from the border over Tayibe and Qantara and crossed the Litani river at the Qa'qa'iya bridge.

Well over the bridge, the force split into three parts: one continued to the coast over Doueir and Zefta, the second surrounded the town of Nabatiye and the third proceeded to the Beaufort castle.

Because of both weather conditions and continued firing nearby, medical evacuation of the Israeli wounded was delayed until shortly before daybreak.

[12] The Israeli soldiers discovered a rope ladder hanging down from the heights of the fortress, suggesting that some of the Palestinian fighters had escaped during the night.

[1] During the day, the IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan visited the troops and was astounded to learn of the death toll.

[26] Mordechai Goldman was awarded the Medal of Courage for his actions, and later medically discharged from the army after being wounded by Syrian artillery outside Beirut.

[28] An investigation was held after the war as to why the order to postpone the operation failed to reach its destination but produced inconclusive results.

[4] For fear of mines and unexploded cluster bombs, the IDF closed off the lower section of the castle, where the Palestinians had been dug in.

Therefore, the body of the Palestinian commander, Ya'qoub Sumour, was only found in 2004, several years after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon, together with Mohammad Abu Saleh, a Fatah fighter of Yemenite origin.