Israel detonates 1,100 tons of explosives under Lebanon's Ali al-Taher ridge

The Israel Defense Forces said it used more than 1,100 metric tons of explosives on Thursday night to destroy Hezbollah tunnels under the Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 4.1 seismic event near Nabatieh at the time of the demolition. Lebanon's National Center for Geophysics reported a similar reading, given as 4.2 by the National News Agency.

The ridge sits about six miles from the Israel-Lebanon border and overlooks Nabatieh. Israeli forces took the high ground earlier this month after months of fighting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the demolition completed operational control above and below ground. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said troops were then ordered to reorganise. Correspondents reported a pull-back from the ridge to positions around Beaufort Castle, with the stated plan to hold the height by surveillance and fire rather than by a standing garrison.

What the army says was underground

The IDF described the complex as the command centre of Hezbollah's Badr unit, which it says is responsible for the sector north of the Litani River. Army statements said the two main routes blown on Thursday ran more than two kilometres. The wider Ali al-Taher-Beaufort network was put at eight routes and more than 5.4 kilometres. A later IDF account spoke of 14 routes on the ridge under the codename Chisel of Flames.

Troops who cleared the tunnels last week, the army said, found dozens of rockets, missiles and unmanned aircraft, anti-tank weapons, mines and explosives. Netanyahu and Katz called the site strategic infrastructure built over two decades with Iranian funding and planning, and said it was meant as a staging base for an attack into the Galilee. The command position, they said, gave observation and fire control toward Metula and Kiryat Shmona.

The IDF said fighters inside were killed or fled. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government issued no immediate public reply. Abbas Fakhereddine, mayor of Nabatieh, said the explosion produced massive sound in the city and that buildings shook.

A buffer held by blast

Israel already claims a self-declared security zone north of the border, marked by what it calls the Yellow Line. Zamir said that line did not move. Destroying the ridge and then leaving it is a choice to deny Hezbollah the underground rooms without paying the cost of holding every hill with infantry.

Whether that bargain holds depends on whether Hezbollah tries to rebuild under the same rock. Israel says it will strike any return. The measurable facts from Thursday night are the ones instruments caught: 1,100 tons of explosive, a 4.1 shock, a ridge reduced to what an Israeli official called a sandbox, and a city six miles away that felt the ground move.