Inside Hezbollah's Underground Fortress: IDF Exposes Iranian-Funded Tunnel Network Six Kilometers from Metula

What the IDF Found

The tunnel network sits beneath the Beaufort Ridge — a dominant topographic feature in southern Lebanon that overlooks the Galilee Panhandle, the narrow strip of Israeli territory that includes Metula, Israel's northernmost town. According to material reviewed by The Zioneer Intelligence Desk, at least one tunnel in the network stretches approximately one kilometer in length and contains six underground shafts — vertical access points that allow operatives to emerge at dispersed surface locations. Inside, IDF forces found dedicated rooms for weapons storage, living quarters configured for prolonged stays, and facilities designed to support sustained combat operations.

The network was not a single passage but a system: multiple tunnels built in parallel, collectively capable of accommodating hundreds of fighters simultaneously. The IDF Spokesperson's office, citing correspondent Nir Dvori, described the infrastructure as including water and electricity supply, operating rooms, and anti-tank as well as air-defense capabilities — the full logistical backbone of a subterranean military base.

Critically, the complex was not dormant. According to the IDF, the network was used to launch unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), shoulder-fired missiles, and anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces operating in the area and at targets inside Israel proper. The Beaufort Ridge's elevation makes it a natural firing platform; the tunnels turned it into a hardened, concealed one.

The Iranian Fingerprint

The IDF stated clearly that the project was planned and funded by Iran — not merely inspired by Iranian doctrine, but actively designed and financed by Tehran. This is consistent with a pattern The Zioneer Intelligence Desk has tracked across southern Lebanon: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has served as the engineering and financial backbone of Hezbollah's underground infrastructure, replicating — and in some cases exceeding — the tunnel doctrine developed by Hamas in Gaza.

The location compounds the strategic significance. The Beaufort Ridge sits in a civilian area, meaning the network was embedded among Lebanese residents. This is a documented Hezbollah practice: positioning military infrastructure inside or beneath populated zones to complicate Israeli targeting and to generate civilian-casualty optics when strikes occur. The Lebanese Armed Forces, according to material reviewed by The Zioneer Intelligence Desk, were reportedly prevented by Hezbollah from addressing the site — a detail that illustrates the degree to which the Lebanese state has been unable or unwilling to enforce sovereignty over its own south.

The Broader Operational Picture

The tunnel disclosure arrives against a backdrop of intensifying Israeli operations in southern Lebanon. As of June 2026, the IDF maintains active ground operations in the south following the collapse of the 2025 ceasefire framework. A senior Israeli official, according to material reviewed by The Zioneer Intelligence Desk, stated this week that Israel has taken control of approximately one-fifth of southern Lebanon's territory, and warned that any Hezbollah action against Israel or IDF forces would result in further expansion of Israeli security zones.

Elsewhere on the same day, two Hezbollah operatives were reported killed in a strike in Dahiya, Beirut's southern suburb and the organization's political and logistical heartland. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf responded with a threat, declaring that American and Israeli bases and assets in the region are now "legitimate targets" — framing the IDF's operations in Lebanon as a provocation that justifies Iranian escalation. Israel, for its part, raised its security alert to the highest level following an Iranian threat received the same afternoon, with Prime Minister Netanyahu convening an urgent security discussion.

The Golani Brigade, along with elite Maglan and Yahalom units — the IDF's specialist tunnel-warfare and engineering forces — are reported to be operating in the Beaufort Ridge area, locating and preparing to destroy the network. Yahalom in particular is the IDF's dedicated combat engineering unit for tunnel neutralization, a capability developed and refined through years of operations in Gaza.

What It Means

The Beaufort Ridge network is a window into what Hezbollah had been building in southern Lebanon for years before the current round of fighting. The proximity to Metula — a town that has been a primary target of Hezbollah rocket and drone fire throughout the 2024–2026 escalation — is not incidental. The ridge offers direct operational control over the Galilee Panhandle. A network of this scale, positioned here, with Iranian funding and engineering, was not a defensive precaution. It was an offensive staging ground.

The IDF's decision to expose the network publicly, with named spokesperson attribution and documented footage, serves a dual purpose: it provides the Israeli public and international audience with evidence of the threat that justified continued operations in Lebanon, and it signals to Hezbollah and Iran that the underground infrastructure they spent years and significant resources building is being systematically dismantled.

What remains unclear, as of this report, is the full extent of the network — whether additional tunnels connect to it, how many similar complexes exist along the ridge or elsewhere in the south, and what the timeline of construction was. The IDF has stated its intent to destroy what it has found. The picture of what else remains underground is still forming.

For Metula and the communities of the Galilee Panhandle, the revelation is both a vindication and a reminder: the threat that emptied these towns was real, engineered, and Iranian-backed. Whether the current operations are sufficient to prevent its reconstruction is the question that will define the north for years to come.