The commander of the IDF’s Givati Brigade described his forces’ swift and unprecedented push across the Litani River to the Beaufort Ridge, marking a significant step in Israel’s ground campaign against Hezbollah.
“From the moment we crossed the Litani until the capture of the villages on the Beaufort Ridge, it took us six hours,” Col. Netanel Shamaka said. “Now we are advancing and clearing what Hezbollah built here.”
Givati Brigade forces operating in the Beaufort Ridge sector, southern Lebanon
(Video: IDF)
Shamaka said troops entered the villages of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Zawtar al-Gharbiyah in southern Lebanon, where soldiers found hundreds of weapons and other military items inside homes.
The past week has taken a heavy toll on the brigade, with all its losses caused by Hezbollah drones, a threat for which Israel has yet to find a full solution.
“I had the privilege of commanding the best people in Israel,” Shamaka said. “Everyone lost a friend in one way or another. We are filling the ranks and understand that they are here so Hezbollah will not be in our territory. This is the insurance policy for residents of the north.”
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He named three of the brigade’s recent losses: Capt. Dr. Ori Yosef Silvester, whom he described as an outstanding physician and a friend; Michael Tyukin, a reconnaissance fighter killed by a first-person-view (FPV) drone; and Sgt. Rotem Yanai. “These are painful losses,” he said.
The operation began last week and, according to the military, broke through a long-standing psychological and operational barrier. Crossing the Litani had been viewed for decades as a red line and as a challenge the IDF had not taken on since the First Lebanon War in the early 1980s.
“Today, the Beaufort Ridge, which dominates the entire sector, is in our hands, and at this very moment we are destroying all this terrorist infrastructure,” Shamaka said. “The fact that we are here, at a dominant point on a yellow line 10 kilometers from the fence, is significant. It is true there are still impacts and drones, but we are holding a buffer zone from which Hezbollah operatives wanted to raid northern communities, and we prevented that.”
He said Israeli forces are still absorbing indirect fire, including rockets and mortars. “They may decide one day to leave, but until then we are here,” he said. “During the so-called ‘ceasefire’ alone, we killed more than 1,000 Hezbollah terrorists. The organization has suffered very heavy blows. We have significantly damaged it, but it will still take time to dismantle it completely. This is a terrorist organization that embedded itself inside the Shiite population. We operate surgically. I cannot harm all Lebanese civilians.”
Shamaka said the rapid advance was made possible by an exceptional engineering effort under difficult terrain conditions and constant mortar and rocket fire.
“There was a significant engineering effort that included building bridges we opened — an operation that had not been carried out for decades,” he said. “After that, there was a major climb to the ridge, all under indirect fire. There were encounters there, and after a fire strike, some of the terrorists were killed and some fled.”
He described the terrain as extremely difficult, with thick brush and mountain routes. “To capture the area, we were in a kill zone. We took quite a few mortars,” he said. “It was carried out thanks to the brigade’s two engineering battalions, regular and reserve. Most of the complex story was the preparation before the conquest. It took weeks of building bridges and very complex engineering actions in the thicket.”
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire overnight — under which Hezbollah was not supposed to attack Israeli communities and the IDF would not strike Beirut’s Dahieh district — Shamaka said there had been “no change.”
“We are operating north of the Litani,” he said. “Just today, the reconnaissance unit encountered a terrorist. We are doing the same thing — raiding Hezbollah headquarters and infrastructure and destroying them.”
Shamaka said the military understood the scope of Hezbollah’s preparations in the sector. “We did not climb this ridge for no reason, but to neutralize the threats,” he said. “Hezbollah built significant force over the years — anti-tank weapons, munitions, grenades, firearms, vests. This is a terrorist organization of a different scale in terms of quantities and scope. This is not a week’s work. It will take several weeks to clear the entire sector.”
According to IDF officials, troops operating in the villages are working to remove the direct threat to the Galilee Panhandle and Metula. The military said more than 100 targets have been struck with air force support and about 20 terrorists have been killed.