IDF says destroyed Hezbollah tunnel complex ran over 5 km

Update, 12 September, 16:07 Israel time

The Israeli military has put a size and a method to the operation at the Ali al-Taher Ridge. The IDF said on X that the tunnel complex ran more than 5 km, was built over two decades with Iranian funding, and contained command centres, rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles and explosives. A second post from the IDF released video it said shows troops uncovering dozens of weapons inside the underground infrastructure at the ridge.

The Israeli news site Ynet reported that the site was brought down using 1,100 tonnes of explosive material, and published images it said were taken afterwards, describing the ridge as having changed colour. Ynet also reported that Lebanon's president appeared in Nabatieh, which it placed about 3.5 km from the site, and said that withdrawal, prisoners and reconstruction were national principles his government was committed to carrying out. According to the same report, negotiation talks that had been scheduled for the coming week were postponed.

The IDF posts do not say how long the demolition took or when the video was filmed, and the weapons shown have not been independently examined. Ynet's figure for the quantity of explosives is not repeated in the military's own English statements.

The story as first reported

Israel's chief of the general staff, the most senior uniformed officer in the Israel Defense Forces, told troops during a visit to the 36th Division that forces had destroyed an underground network beneath the Ali al-Taher Ridge overnight. In remarks distributed by the IDF spokesperson, he described the site as the central command, control and combat infrastructure of Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed movement, and said it had been built with Iranian assistance.

The IDF spokesperson quoted the chief of staff as saying that Israel would defend its communities "at any cost" and that the military "stands as a shield on the front line." Any strike on communities in northern Israel or on the soldiers protecting them, he said, would draw "an immediate and forceful response." The Israeli broadcaster N12 carried the same remarks in Hebrew.

What the chief of staff said about the units involved

In a second statement issued by the military, the chief of staff singled out the Commando Brigade and three of its units by name: Egoz, Maglan and Yahalom. He said the Commando Brigade "has fulfilled its purpose as a brigade for special operations." Alongside them, he said, soldiers of the Golani Brigade, the 7th Brigade and additional forces operated at the front of the ridge and deep underground.

Egoz, Maglan and Yahalom are specialist units of the IDF's Commando Brigade. Golani is one of the army's infantry brigades and the 7th Brigade is an armored formation. The 36th Division, which the chief of staff was visiting, is a standing IDF divisional command. The statements do not set out the division's area of responsibility or say how many troops took part in the operation.

The reference to those killed and wounded

The chief of staff also said the military remembers those who fell and were wounded in the fighting to reach its objectives, adding that the achievement was "above all theirs." The published text does not give any figures for casualties, does not say whether any were sustained in this particular operation, and does not name anyone. The second statement is cut off in the version released by the spokesperson, breaking off as he begins a sentence referring to the new year.

The "Yellow Line"

Both versions of the remarks end on a reference to what the IDF calls the Yellow Line. The English-language post from the IDF spokesperson is truncated at the words "The Yellow," so the full sentence is missing from the military's own English release. The Hebrew report from N12, attributed to correspondent Nitzan Shapira, completes the quotation: the Yellow Line, the chief of staff said, remains under full Israeli control and unchanged.

The two accounts are consistent as far as the English text runs. The difference between them is one of length rather than substance: the Hebrew version includes a closing clause that the English release does not. The material does not define the Yellow Line, mark where it runs, or explain what would count as a change to it.

Terms an international reader may not know

The Hebrew title for the chief of the general staff is Ramatkal, an acronym used in Israeli media and in the N12 report. The officer holding the post commands all branches of the IDF and reports to the defence minister. Hezbollah is the Lebanese Shia political and armed movement that Israel, the United States and other governments designate a terrorist organisation; the chief of staff's statement links its infrastructure at the ridge to Iranian support, which is a claim made by the Israeli military rather than an independently established fact.

What the reports do not say

Neither the IDF spokesperson nor N12 places the Ali al-Taher Ridge geographically, gives the duration of the operation, or describes how the underground network was destroyed. There is no description of the size of the complex, no account of what was found inside it, and no claim about anyone killed on the other side.

No Lebanese or Hezbollah response appears in the material, and there is no independent confirmation of the damage described. The statements do not say whether the operation has concluded or whether forces remain at the site, and they do not identify the chief of staff by name. The military's own English text breaks off mid-sentence in both posts, so parts of what was said to the 36th Division are not in the public record as released.