A senior IDF officer says the operation in which four soldiers, including the 52nd Battalion deputy commander, were killed night was to capture an unprecedented strategic underground network — Hezbollah's nerve center in southern Lebanon. Dozens of Hezbollah operatives are trapped and surrounded, the military says. The IDF also says a preliminary probe finds the tank was struck by an explosive drone with a warhead, not a mechanical failure.
In a Sunday briefing, senior IDF officers provided the first detailed account of the operation that led to the deaths of four tank crew members on Friday night near the village of Tibnit in southern Lebanon. The force was advancing to capture a large underground complex on the Ali Taher ridge — described as Hezbollah's main command headquarters for its Badr Unit in the region, comprising several underground compounds, one over a kilometer long and others extending hundreds of meters. The IDF says the complex is "a strategic infrastructure without precedent" and the "nerve center" of Hezbollah's southern Lebanon deployment.
The military states that dozens of Hezbollah operatives are currently trapped and surrounded inside the underground site, and that the IDF advanced specifically to eliminate this threat. Fighting is ongoing inside the tunnel network, with the enemy resisting to protect those cornered. The officer emphasized the operation was "purely professional and operational" in its considerations, and that contrary to Hezbollah claims, it does not violate the ceasefire because the ridge lies south of the "yellow line" published by the IDF — though the officer acknowledged that the map was unilaterally defined and not necessarily accepted by Hezbollah.
The IDF also published the preliminary probe into the tank strike that killed the four soldiers. Contrary to earlier speculation of a mechanical malfunction, the tank sustained a confirmed external hit, and the assessment is that an explosive drone carrying an anti-tank missile warhead struck the vehicle through a vulnerable point. The four soldiers — the deputy commander of the 52nd Battalion and three crew members — were killed outright. The IDF stressed that the probe continues and that no final conclusions have been reached.
As The Zioneer reported earlier, the incident marked one of the deadliest single engagements for the IDF in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire, prompting intense searches for the drone, which does not appear to have been intercepted before striking. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday, providing its own footage and descriptions.
3 developments
- Developing4 IDF soldiers killed in Hezbollah tunnel-ambush in south Lebanon; 147 rockets fired at Israeli troops
- StrongHezbollah releases detailed claim of responsibility for tank strike that killed 52nd Battalion commander
- StrongIDF besieges ~30 Hezbollah operatives in underground command center on Ali al-Taher ridge
- StrongHezbollah footage claims to show anti-tank missile strike on IDF tank that killed four soldiers
Source and signal
- Internal intake