Cleared for publication: Since the beginning of the war, IDF troops have quietly carried out dozens of targeted operations near the border in southern Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah combat compounds and weapons.
“On October 8th, the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon launched an unprovoked attack on Israel. Hezbollah chose to join the war that Hamas started on October 7th, with their brutal massacre in southern Israel. Since then, Hezbollah has fired over 9,500 rockets at Israeli homes; families, and communities, forcing 60,000 Israelis to evacuate their homes.
Hezbollah has openly declared that it plans to carry out its own October the 7th massacre on Israel’s northern border, on an even larger scale. They call this plan, “Conquer the Galilee”. For years, Hezbollah has been planning to do in northern Israel what Hamas did in southern Israel on October 7th: invade Israel, infiltrate civilian communities and massacre innocent civilians.
To make sure that Hezbollah can never carry out such an attack and in order to enable all 60,000 Israelis to safely return back to their homes in northern Israel, the IDF is taking action.
“Hezbollah planned to launch their October 7th attack from villages across southern Lebanon where they have been building up their arms; capabilities; and forces for the last two decades. Hezbollah also dug tunnels under homes in these villages close to the border with Israel.
“Tonight, we are de-classifying a series of IDF operations conducted since the beginning of the war aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure and capabilities in the area of the Israel Lebanon border as part of our efforts to make sure that the residents of northern Israel can return to their homes in safety and security without the threat of Hezbollah on their doorstep,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
“During these operations, IDF special forces entered into Hezbollah compounds in dozens of locations along the border with Israel collected intelligence and dismantled Hezbollah’s weapons and terrorist infrastructure.
“Our soldiers entered Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure; exposed Hezbollah’s hidden weapons caches and seized and destroyed the weapons including advanced, Iranian-made weapons.
Overall, IDF soldiers exposed and dismantled over 700 Hezbollah terror assets during these operations and there’s a lot more work to do.
“Tonight, I will de-classify details of three of these special operations:
Meiss El Jabal is a Lebanese village close to the border with Israel only a few hundred meters away from the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. Since the beginning of the war the majority of over 20,000 residents of Kiryat Shmona had to evacuate their homes after coming under fire from Hezbollah’s relentless attacks.
“We have operated against hundreds of terrorist targets embedded inside Meiss El Jabal which directly threaten the city of Kiryat Shmona and the wider northern region. Many of the Lebanese residents of Meiss El Jabal have left the area due to Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.
“As part of this operation, we collected intelligence on this house, on the edge of the Lebanese village, near the border with Israel. The house was used by Hezbollah terrorists who dug underground infrastructure below it.
“This combat infrastructure was used by the terrorists to store weapons and was planned to be the preparation area for Hezbollah terrorists before attempting to invade Israeli territory. During the operation, the troops conducted a targeted raid on the house and revealed large amounts of weapons stored on the ground floor.
“In the basement, our soldiers found an elevated platform, built to hide a shaft that led to an underground tunnel. The soldiers exposed a tunnel 150 meters long that did not cross into Israeli territory that was excavated in stone.
“At the end of the activity we dismantled the tunnel and the house in joint ground and aerial strikes.
“Another example is the Lebanese village of Kfarkela on the border just a few hundred meters away from the Israeli town of Metula. Metula has been one of the most heavily-attacked Israeli communities over the last year. We have conducted hundreds of strikes and operations against Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Kfarkela in order to remove these threats to Israeli families that want to go back home.
“In one operation we followed precise intelligence regarding an underground tunnel used by Hezbollah to hide weapons. IDF soldiers conducted a targeted raid on this house, and during scans in a children’s’ room there under the bed they located an underground tunnel shaft.
“The soldiers went inside the tunnel shaft and revealed a 100 meter long underground tunnel excavated in stone. The troops scanned the tunnel and found weapons stored in barrels.
“In one of the rooms, they exposed a weapons storage facility intended to be used by Hezbollah on the day of the planned invasion.
“At the end of the operation the house, the tunnel and the arsenal of weapons were dismantled in ground and aerial strikes.
“The final example is an operation against Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the area of Nurit, which is between Israel’s border and the Lebanese village of Ayt Al Shaab.
“Since the beginning of the war, IDF troops have struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets including military outposts, rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities in the area.
“Using classified technological means, we identified a Hezbollah combat compound and underground preparation area built near the village. The compound included a system of combat trenches, above and below ground. This network of trenches connects to an underground tunnel which included a weapons storage facility, a command and control center, and preparation and living spaces for Hezbollah terrorists.
“Our soldiers raided the combat trenches at the top of the mountain. They scanned them and found an access point to a tunnel route that goes down below the ground, in the direction of the Lebanese village.
“The soldiers went deep inside the tunnel, where they found large numbers of weapons stored in the living compounds. At the end of the operation, all of the infrastructure built by Hezbollah over many years was dismantled in joint ground and aerial activity.
“The operations that we de-classified tonight are only a small number of dozens of operations that we will reveal going forward, including the destruction of Hezbollah’s strategic assets and capabilities.
“Hezbollah built, prepared, and equipped this infrastructure over many years in preparation for the day that it would carry out an invasion into northern Israel.
“In one of the buildings that our troops raided, we found proof of this. This is a map that Hezbollah planned to give its terrorists at the time of a wide-scale invasion into the State of Israel as part of its “Conquer the Galilee” plan to carry out an October the 7th massacre in Israel’s north.
“As you can see on the map, there is a key marking Israeli communities, IDF posts, access roads and targets for attack. We found this map in one of the compounds that was supposed to be used by thousands of Hezbollah terrorists on the day they carried out their invasion. Our precise operations against Hezbollah throughout the war have degraded Hezbollah’s ability to carry out an October 7th style invasion along our northern border.
“Israel warned Hezbollah that it will bear the consequences of its attacks against Israel. However, Hezbollah continued its aggression, it continued to expand its range of fire against Israeli civilians, and continued to drag the people of Lebanon towards a wider escalation.
“Our war is not with the people of Lebanon it’s with Hezbollah. This is a clear message to the international community: For years, Israel has warned the world that Hezbollah is violating international law and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which prohibits the presence of armed militants and weapons in southern Lebanon. This was a resolution that the international community agreed on and Lebanon and UNIFIL failed to enforce.
“No country would agree to the presence of a murderous terrorist organization along its borders and the State of Israel has the right and the obligation to do what 1701 failed to do.
“We will continue presenting our findings to the international community, including evidence that we brought back from inside Hezbollah’s strongholds along our border. Israel is facing threats on many fronts and continues to act against them in defense of the people of Israel.
“We are committed to achieving all of our goals. In Gaza, we are continuing to operate to bring home all 101 hostages who have been held in brutal conditions by Hamas for almost a year.
“We are continuing to operate to dismantle Hamas’s capabilities to ensure they can never again carry out a massacre against us. And, we are intensively operating against the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon in order to enable the residents of northern Israel to return home in safety and security. These are our missions and we are determined to fulfill them.”
