Latrun (Hebrew: לטרון, Latrun; Arabic: اللطرون, al-Latrun) is a strategic hilltop in the Latrun salient in the Ayalon Valley. It overlooks the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla. It was the site of fierce fighting during the 1948 war. During the period of 1949–1967, it was occupied by Jordan at the edge of a no man's land between the armistice lines. In the 1967 war it was captured by Israel and had been under Israeli control since then.

The hilltop includes the Latrun Abbey, Mini Israel (a park with scale models of historic buildings around Israel), The International Center for the Study of Bird Migration (ICSBM), the Yad La-Shiryon memorial to armored corps soldiers killed in action, and military tank museum. Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian community on a hilltop south of Latrun. Canada Park is nearby to the east.

The name Latrun is derived from the ruins of a medieval Crusader castle. There are two theories regarding the origin of the name. One is that it is a corruption of the Old French La toron des chevaliers, or of the Castilian La torón de los caballeros (The Castle of the Knights), so named by the Knights Templar, or by its Castilian founder, Rodrigo Gonzales de Lara (see below). The other is that it is from the Latin, Domus boni Latronis (The House of the Good Thief), a name given by 14th-century Christian pilgrims after the penitent thief who was crucified by the Romans alongside Jesus (Luke 23:40–43).

In the Hebrew Bible, the Ayalon Valley was the site of a battle in which the Israelites, led by Joshua, defeated the Amorites (Joshua 10:1–11).

Later, Judah Maccabee established his camp here in preparation for battle with the Seleucid Greeks, who had invaded Judea and were camped at Emmaus; this site is today identified by archaeologists as Hurvat Eked. According to the Book of Maccabees, Judah Maccabee learned that the Greeks were planning to march on his position, and successfully ambushed the invaders. The Jewish victory in what was later called the Battle of Emmaus led to greater Jewish autonomy under Hasmonean rule over the next century.

Little remains of the castle, which was reputedly built in the 1130s by a Castilian nobleman Rodrigo González de Lara who later gave it to the Templars. The main tower was later surrounded with a rectangular enclosure with vaulted chambers. This in turn was enclosed by an outer court, of which one tower survives.

Walid Khalidi in his book All That Remains describes al-Latrun as a small village established in the late 19th century by villagers from nearby Emmaus.

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Latrun as a few adobe huts among the ruins of a medieval fortress.