IDF says it has cleared Hezbollah tunnel routes on Ali al-Taher Ridge

The Israel Defense Forces said it has finished clearing Hezbollah's underground infrastructure in the area of the Ali al-Taher Ridge in Lebanon and is now working to neutralize it. In a statement issued by the IDF spokesperson, the military said soldiers of the 36th Division had operated in recent weeks to clear two underground routes in the ridge area, which the statement placed inside what it called the Security Zone.

According to the IDF spokesperson's announcement, the troops achieved operational control of the ridge both above and below ground and cleared the area of what it described as terrorists, some of whom were killed while others left the area. The Jerusalem Post reported that the clearing followed an operation that had run for months.

What the IDF says was found underground

In a post published on its English-language account on X, the military described the site as a strategic underground network built over two decades and said it was funded and planned by what it called the Iranian terror regime. The IDF said the network contained command centres, weapons and living quarters, and that fighters who had been inside it carried out attacks against Israel and against Israeli soldiers before being killed or fleeing.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also referred to the operation. Speaking about the ridge, he said many operatives had been killed there and that equipment and computers had been removed from the site, according to remarks relayed by the Arabic-affairs monitoring account Abu Ali Express, which tracks and translates Arabic-language and Lebanese reporting for Israeli readers.

Who the 36th Division is

The 36th Division is one of the Israeli army's regular armoured formations and has operated on the northern front. Its involvement, named in the military's own statement, is one of the few operational details the IDF has published about the mission. The statement does not say how many soldiers took part, how long they were on the ridge, or whether they remain there.

The 'Security Zone' and the tunnel question

The term Security Zone, as used in the IDF statement, refers to the area of southern Lebanon in which Israeli forces have continued to operate. The military's framing of the ridge as lying within that zone signals that it treats the position as one it can enter and hold rather than raid, though the statement itself does not spell out the arrangement.

Underground infrastructure has been the central military problem in both of Israel's recent campaigns. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia movement and armed group backed by Iran, has built fortified positions and tunnel systems in the south of the country. Clearing such a route and then neutralizing it are described by the IDF as two separate stages: the first involves entering and searching the passage, the second involves destroying it. The military's wording indicates the second stage was still under way when the announcement was made.

The Iranian dimension and holiday warnings

The operation was announced against a backdrop of exchanges over Iran. Ynet reported that Iranian statements had warned that a full assault on Ali al-Taher would draw a powerful response, while senior Israeli figures said they had no indication of any imminent Iranian move, telling the outlet they had not heard of such an intention.

Ynet also reported that Defence Minister Israel Katz, speaking at a conference held by the outlet, cautioned that Tehran has a pattern of striking during Jewish holidays. In the same report, Netanyahu was quoted saying that the fall of the Iranian government was within reach, and United States Vice President JD Vance was reported as saying there would be no talks with Iran unless it stopped firing. These positions are reported as statements by the people who made them and not as assessments confirmed by any other body.

How Lebanese and Hezbollah-facing coverage read it

Abu Ali Express, writing before the military statement circulated, said the Ali al-Taher episode appeared to be over and that Hezbollah was beginning to absorb that, in a short post on its Telegram channel. That is a monitoring account's reading rather than a Hezbollah statement.

What the reports do not say

None of the material gives a number of Hezbollah operatives killed, a number of Israeli casualties, or the length of the two underground routes. Netanyahu spoke of many operatives killed without giving a figure, and the IDF statement does not quantify it either. There is no Hezbollah or Lebanese government response in the material, and no independent confirmation that the routes have been destroyed as opposed to searched. The reports do not say when neutralization is expected to finish, whether Israeli troops will stay on the ridge, or what was on the computers Netanyahu said were removed. The claim that the network was built over two decades with Iranian funding and planning rests on the IDF's account alone.