The military reports ongoing clearance operations in the subterranean network beneath the Beaufort Ridge, where Hezbollah had stationed hundreds of operatives in living quarters. The IDF says the operatives were planning to raid Israeli territory upon the outbreak of a war with Iran, a plan that was not executed.
The IDF on Sunday evening released a photograph from ongoing clearance operations inside the tunnel network beneath the Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon. The military said the tunnels are hewn into rock and were used by Hezbollah to station hundreds of operatives, who were living inside them with the intention of launching a cross-border raid into Israel upon the outbreak of a wider war with Iran. The plan was not carried out, the IDF stated.
As The Zioneer reported on June 7 (20:03 Jerusalem), the IDF had first revealed this large-scale tunnel network, describing it as an Iranian-funded project designed to accommodate hundreds of fighters and equipped with living quarters, medical facilities, and weapons storage. A subsequent bulletin at 20:53 Jerusalem the same day noted that troops from the 36th Division had found attack maps of northern Israeli communities on a tunnel wall. The current message does not disclose new findings beyond the ongoing clearance and the reaffirmation of Hezbollah's intended use of the network.
The source, a single official IDF statement relayed through desk channels, has not yet been independently corroborated for the specific operational details in this update. The broader existence and clearance of the network has been extensively documented by the military over the past several days — as The Zioneer reported in its June 7 article "Inside Hezbollah's Underground Fortress" — but the claim that hundreds of operatives were stationed inside as part of a pre-war raid plan remains unverified by independent sources.
What remains open: the precise timeline and readiness of the reported raid plan, and whether any Hezbollah operatives were present in the tunnels at the time of the IDF's clearance operation.
5 developments
- StrongIDF clears Hezbollah tunnel network beneath Beaufort Ridge, advances near Nabatieh
- StrongIDF drone tracks Hezbollah operatives emerging from Beaufort tunnel, airstrike kills several
- DevelopingIDF uncovers large Hezbollah tunnel network used for about 400 launches
- DevelopingIDF publishes footage of Hezbollah weapon cache at Beaufort Castle
Source and signal
- Internal intake