The IDF has revealed it has been carrying out covert raids in Lebanon for months and even thwarted a Hezbollah plan for 3,000 militants to slaughter Israelis in the days following October 7.
As the Israeli military officially launched their ground operations in Lebanon early this morning, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari today disclosed that it has already carried out more than 70 smaller raids with special forces since the beginning of the deadly war.
It claimed to have destroyed several Hezbollah positions, tunnels, and thousands of stashed weapons that could have potentially been used by the Iran-backed terror group to invade Israel.
According to the IDF, troops in the raids over the past months covertly reached around 1,000 Hezbollah sites across southern Lebanon including tunnels and bunkers – located both inside Lebanese villages and forested areas.
‘Hezbollah dug tunnels under homes in these villages close to the border with Israel, tonight we are declassifying 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,’ Hagari said.
The IDF today disclosed that it has already carried out more than 70 small raids with special forces in Lebanon since the beginning of the deadly war
In footage shared by the IDF today, soldiers could be seen exploring Hezbollah tunnels which were packed with weaponsÂ
During their operations, the IDF uncovered tunnel shafts, weapons, operational posts and storage facilities
The Israel Defence Forces said soldiers have identified and breached ‘underground access points’ near the border area
During these operations, IDF special forces entered into Hezbollah compounds in dozens of locations along the border with Israel and collected intelligence while dismantling their weapons.
Israeli soldiers snuck into Hezbollah’s underground tunnels and exposed the militant group’s hidden weapon caches and seized and destroyed the arms – including advanced Iranian-made weapons.
The IDF shared footage from the covert operations captured on IDF soldiers’ bodycam devices as Hagari made his defiant statement, showing Israeli soldiers working their way through deep tunnels and dragging out guns and cases of other weapons.
‘Overall, IDF soldiers exposed and dismantled over 700 Hezbollah terror assets during these operations,’ Hagari said.
The military spokesman revealed the details of three similar special operations, including one that took place in Meiss El Jabal – a Lebanese village close to the border with Israel, and only a few hundred metres away from the Israeli city of Qiryat Shemona.
Hagari said many residents of the Lebanese village had fled due to Hezbollah’s terrorist activities – but as part of the operation the IDF collected intelligence on a house close to the border which was used by militants to dig underground infrastructure below it.
According to Hagari, the house was set to be used as a ‘preparation area’ before Hezbollah would have attempted to invade Israeli territory.
During the operation, troops conducted a targeted raid on the house and revealed a large amount of weapons had been stored.
And in the basement, soldiers discovered an elevated platform built to hide a shaft that led to an underground tunnel that was 150metres long.
Footage captured the moment IDF soldiers dragged Hezbollah guns and weapons from an underground lair in Lebanon
Special Forces soldiers searched through a Lebanese home and discovered tunnel entrances under furnitureÂ
Many of the tunnels had been excavated in stone when the IDF discovered them during their covert operationsÂ
Soldiers could be seen smashing down walls to uncover the hidden tunnel systems
In one operation, a Hezbollah living space was found among weaponsÂ
The homes, tunnels, and weapon storage facilities were then destroyed in joint ground and air strikes, according to the IDF
The IDF then dismantled the house and tunnel in a joint ground and aerial strike, according to Hagari.
A similar operation was carried out in the Lebanese village of Kfarkela, close to the Israeli border and the town of Metula – one of the most heavily attacked Israeli communities over the last year.
The IDF followed ‘precise intelligence’ regarding an underground tunnel use by Hezbollah to hide weapons.
During scans in a child’s bedroom located inside a house in Kfarkela, soldiers found the 100metre tunnel excavated in stone under a small bed, and within the tunnel, discovered weapons stored in barrels.
Following the operation, the house, tunnel, and arsenal of weapons were destroyed in a ground and aerial strike.
The final example took place in the Lebanese village of Ayta ash Shab – where since the beginning of the war IDF troops have struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets including military outposts, rocket launchers, and weapon storage facilities.
‘Using classified technological means we identified the Hezbollah compound and preparation area built near the village… including a system of combat trenches above and below ground,’ Hagari revealed.
The network of trenches connected to an underground tunnel which housed a weapon storage facility, a command and control centre, and a living space for Hezbollah militants.
The tunnel root went deep underground in the direction of the Lebanese village, and at the end of the operation, the entire infrastructure was blown to pieces in joint ground and aerial activity carried out by the IDF. Â
‘The operations that we declassified tonight are only a small number of dozens of operations that will be revealed going forward,’ Hagari said.
Some of the tunnels spanned to around 150metres in length before they were dismantled by the IDF
Caches of weapons were discovered in the sites which soldiers later destroyedÂ
Guns and other weapons were hidden away in weapon storage facilities in the underground areas
The inside of a Hezbollah underground tunnel IDF troops entered in Ayta Ash Shab, southern Lebanon
Items used by Hezbollah militants to live in the underground tunnels were also found during the operations
These covert raids have been carried out since early in the Israel-Hamas war after the IDF said it managed to push back Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force from the border area, enabling Israeli commandos to enter Lebanon with almost no detection.
There were no direct clashes with Hezbollah operatives amid any of the raids, the IDF stated.
According to IDF assessments, some 2,400 Radwan terrorists and another 500 Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists – trained by Radwan – were waiting in southern Lebanon villages to attack Israel in the days after Hamas carried out its October 7 massacre is southern Israel.
The IDF Northern Command had expected an invasion from Lebanon and bolstered its defences and in the following weeks, carried out several strikes on Hezbollah operatives and sites along the border, causing the thousands of Radwan terrorists to withdraw several kilometers back.
The raids carried out by the IDF commandos, including combat engineers, sometimes lasted three to four days and overall, 200 night’ worth of operations had been carried out, according to the military.
The IDF identified that while its commando operations were successful, it was not enough to be able to achieve the newest of Israel’s war goals — enabling the return of the displaced residents of the north – of which there are around 60,000 – to their homes.
It said its air force and artillery supported ground troops engaged in ‘localised and targeted ground raids’ against Hezbollah in southern Lebanese villages.
Military officials have said they aim for the offensive to be as short as possible, spanning even just a few weeks.Â
Israeli officials have insisted the raids will be limited in scale, adding they do not intend to launch a ground assault on Beirut or occupy swathes of Lebanon.
There has been no intention by the IDF to remain in southern Lebanon, but instead, it plans to bolster its defenses and surveillance on the border following the ground operation against the terror group, and make sure Hezbollah does not return to the area.
