The IDF said Saturday evening that forces from the 36th Division are continuing to clear a Hezbollah underground tunnel network beneath Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, a system the military said was built with funding from Iran.
The announcement came as Israel voiced concern that a memorandum of understanding expected to be signed between the United States and Iran could include understandings on Lebanon and potentially limit Israeli freedom of action against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization.
IDF shows how Hezbollah tunnels under Beaufort Ridge were built to raid northern communities
(Video: IDF)
According to the IDF, troops found maps inside one of the underground routes showing the threat posed by the tunnel network to communities in northern Israel.
The military said the material was discovered in a tunnel where Hezbollah terrorists who tried to flee were located and later killed in an airstrike several days ago. The IDF said its forces entered the area to gain operational control over terrain that threatened Israeli civilians and to enable the destruction of the tunnel system.
Forces from the 7th Brigade combat team and the Egoz commando unit, operating under the 36th Division, completed an operation Thursday to secure and clear the area north of Wadi Saluki in southern Lebanon.
The IDF said Wadi Saluki had been used by Hezbollah as infrastructure for launching explosive drones and indirect fire at Israeli troops operating in the area. During the operation, the military said forces, working with the Air Force, destroyed hundreds of terrorist infrastructure sites and killed more than 50 Hezbollah terrorists.
Troops also found weapons, including explosive devices, anti-tank missiles and anti-tank launchers, according to the IDF.
The 36th Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. Yiftach Norkin, was the first division to enter the Taybeh area in southern Lebanon at the start of the latest campaign against Iran, according to the military. The IDF said the operation was intended to prevent Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force from infiltrating the Misgav Am area in the Galilee Panhandle, near the Lebanese border.
Earlier this week, the IDF released footage showing Hezbollah terrorists fleeing underground tunnels before being killed from the air during an operation by the Commando Brigade combat team and the Yahalom combat engineering unit, under the 36th Division.
The military activity is taking place as reports of an expected U.S.-Iran memorandum have raised concern in Israel that Lebanon could be included in a wider regional arrangement. Iran is seeking to include an end to all regional confrontations in the understandings, including the conflict in Lebanon.
Israeli officials have stressed that they will not accept any agreement that limits the IDF’s freedom of action against Hezbollah. The concern in Jerusalem is that Washington may later pressure Israel to show restraint against the group in order to avoid endangering the deal with Tehran.
Earlier Saturday, the IDF said forces from the 551st Brigade, operating under the 91st Division, killed seven Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon during an operation to destroy terrorist infrastructure.
According to the military, troops identified two Hezbollah cells, totaling seven terrorists, operating from an underground route in southern Lebanon over the past week. The tunnel was used to store ammunition, mortars and food supplies for attacks against IDF forces in the area.
Working with the Air Force, artillery units and drones, the 551st Brigade forces killed the terrorists identified in the tunnel route, the IDF said. Troops later found Kalashnikov rifles and military equipment on the terrorists, as well as launch positions and weapons nearby, which were destroyed.