The IDF was instructed Saturday evening to hold its fire in southern Lebanon, while troops have operational control over one of Hezbollah’s main centers of gravity in the area: the Ali Taher Ridge compound near the city of Nabatieh, considered a stronghold of the terrorist organization. The fortified underground compound, built with Iranian assistance, is considered one of Hezbollah’s nerve centers in southern Lebanon.
According to security officials, the fighting in the southern sector is directed from the site, fire arrays are operated from there and large quantities of weapons are stored there. Because of its depth and fortifications, the compound is very difficult to damage through airstrikes alone. “We must not withdraw from there,” a senior IDF official said. “This is a mission of moral importance whose goal is to protect the residents of the north.”
According to the senior official, the IDF currently holds operational control over the area, and dozens of Hezbollah terrorists are trapped inside the compound with no ability to leave. Officials believe this is one of the reasons for the increase in fire by the organization in recent days, in an effort to ease pressure on its besieged operatives.
Heavy exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah continued throughout the day, with both sides accusing the other of violating the ceasefire agreement. Hezbollah claimed 111 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the weekend, after the tank disaster in which Lt. Col. Dor Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd Armored Battalion, and three other soldiers were killed. In the afternoon, an Israeli official said, against the backdrop of Iran’s dramatic announcement that it was closing the Strait of Hormuz and its threat to fire missiles at Israel, that the IDF had been instructed to hold its fire in Lebanon. Amid the IDF’s operational control of the ridge, military officials voiced opposition to the order to hold fire.
Ben Simhon and the three soldiers, whose names have not yet been cleared for publication, were killed overnight Thursday in an operation in the village of Tebnit near the ridge, as part of efforts to seize Hezbollah’s underground compound on Ali Taher Ridge. The military initially did not know what had hit the tank, but a senior IDF official said Saturday evening that it was an external strike, either by an explosive drone or an anti-tank missile, and not an operational accident, as had been examined among several possible explanations for the disaster.
The IDF said the extensive strikes were a response to broad overnight Hezbollah attacks on troops in the security zone. Lebanon reported 30 people killed during the day in several areas, with authorities saying 16 people were killed and 12 others wounded in the Nabatieh area, including one Lebanese soldier.
Only Friday, the United States announced that a new “ceasefire” had taken effect as part of the Trump administration’s effort to advance negotiations with Iran on a final nuclear agreement. In a statement to foreign media, the IDF spokesperson confirmed the strikes in southern Lebanon, saying they targeted Hezbollah sites, and said that “overnight, Hezbollah carried out more than 50 launches at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.” In a similar statement in Hebrew, the military said: “The IDF is committed to the ceasefire agreement in accordance with the instructions of the political echelon and will continue to act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and IDF troops.”