Israeli troops have driven Hezbollah fighters from tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday. The Iran-aligned Shiite group did not immediately comment.
Israel had said Hezbollah fighters were embedded in tunnels under the ridge, which overlooks a wide area and had become one of the most hotly contested areas in the Israel-Hezbollah war, despite a ceasefire announced in June.
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"The mission was completed and the tunnels were cleared of terrorists," Katz said on social media, after a statement by the military late on Thursday saying it had operational control of the ridge.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Iran had warned the United States last month that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli assault on its Hezbollah allies' positions within the ridge. For its part, the Shiite Muslim group had said it would resist any Israeli assault.
The Israeli military said some Hezbollah fighters had been "eliminated", while others had fled.
Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters was not able to independently verify the status of the ridge.
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The ridge, a flashpoint since Tehran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March following the US-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lies close to the major city of Nabatieh and the Litani river.
It is just a few kilometres from UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle, another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months.
The Israeli military on Thursday said that the tunnel network included "command centres (and) weapons storage rooms".
"The infrastructure is a strategic underground network that was built over two decades and funded and planned by the Iranian terror regime," it added.
Kahwaji, who heads the INEGMA military analysis institute, said the hilltops overlook Iqlim al-Tuffah, an area further from the border where Hezbollah holds sway, as well as part of the country's east.
Control of the area would therefore "give the Israelis an easy passage to move on both sides".
Speaking to journalists including AFP last month, Hezbollah spokesman Youssef al-Zein refused to say how many of the group's fighters were at the Ali al-Taher position. He denied any Iranian personnel were there, as had been reported in some media outlets.
He said that Israel had "exaggerated the importance of Ali al-Taher" as a military objective but also vowed that Hezbollah would "defend this position as much as it can".
The ridge is located right above the Litani. Hezbollah agreed to disarm in areas south of the river under a 2024 ceasefire that sought to end its previous war with Israel.
Israel has expanded its military occupation over swathes of southern Lebanon since launching a new campaign against Hezbollah in March.
In June, Israel's army published an updated map showing the parts of southern Lebanon it considers within what it calls its "security zone" where its troops are operating, expanding the area to include the Ali al-Taher ridge.
(the broadcaster with Reuters and AFP)
