Israel bombs Lebanon ridge with underground Hezbollah site

The Israeli military on Thursday night said it dismantled an underground Hezbollah complex underneath the Ali al-Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon. The complex included a command unit, weapons storage areas, and living quarters for Hezbollah, which is deemed a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. The Israeli military said it found dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles, drones, and machine guns, along with hundreds of mines and explosive devices, inside the complex.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared a video of the operation on social media, which depicted dozens of powerful explosions occurring on the ridge. He said Israel destroyed the largest Iranian complex outside Iran, an apparent reference to the Iranian regime’s backing of Hezbollah.

The bombing apparently occurred before Israeli soldiers entered the underground complex and recorded videos of soldiers combing through Hezbollah weapons stores. It was unclear whether Hezbollah members were killed in the bombing. The Israeli military later shared a video it said depicted two Hezbollah members being killed after they fired on Israeli troops from a tunnel shaft on the ridge.

Lebanon’s national news agency reported that the bombing caused seismic activity, including ground waves, equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 4.2 on the Richter scale. The news agency also reported additional artillery shelling on the ridge and in a nearby village, Al-Mansouri. Most of the public school there was destroyed in an Israeli strike, the outlet said, though it did not report any deaths or injuries. Residents of the village fled weeks ago, according to the Associated Press.

What did the Lebanese government say about the situation? Lebanese President Joseph Aoun did not appear to have released a public statement regarding the attack on the ridge as of Friday afternoon. However, he said Thursday that it was time for the Lebanese government to re-assert its control over southern regions of the country. The Israeli military currently controls much of southern Lebanon, and Israel has said troops will withdraw gradually from certain zones once Hezbollah is eliminated from each area.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the Israel-Lebanon peace framework, which was not signed by Hezbollah.