IDF says it has begun dismantling Hezbollah tunnel network found in southern Lebanon

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The Israeli military (IDF) says it has discovered a web of tunnels in southern Lebanon used by the militant group Hezbollah.

Israel says it is in the process of dismantling the tunnels to prevent Hezbollah using them as a launchpad to attack Israel, in a similar way to the Hamas incursion last year which sparked the war in Gaza.

The IDF said it has spent the past two weeks combing southern Lebanon to uncover what it says are Hezbollah’s deep attack capabilities, highlighted by a tunnel system equipped with weapons caches and rocket launchers that Israel says pose a direct threat to nearby communities.

In a post on X, the IDF said more than 50 tunnel shafts and other ‘terrorist infrastructure’ had been destroyed and a cache of weapons including landmines and anti-tank missiles had been seized.

Israel’s war against the Iran-backed militant group stretches far inside Lebanon and its air strikes in recent weeks have killed more than 1,700 people, about a quarter of whom were women and children, according to local health authorities.

But its ground campaign, launched on 30 September, has centred on a narrow patch of land just along the border, where Hezbollah has had a longstanding presence and where many of the group’s supporters are based.

The Gaza-based militant group Hamas, with which Hezbollah is ideologically aligned, also maintains a labyrinth of underground tunnels and on Saturday, the IDF published video it says shows the group’s former leader, Yahya Sinwar, using them to flee the West Bank on the day before the 7 October attack on Israel.

The IDF said the footage, reportedly filmed on 6 October, showed Sinwar and his wife and children using the tunnels to move items such as mattresses, water bottles and other objects.

“There were no hostages with Sinwar when he was eliminated. Killing Sinwar is the result of a year of operational and intelligence efforts to bring him and other Hamas leaders to justice. Sinwar has been eliminated, but our mission is not over. We will not rest until we bring all our hostages home,” said IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari.

Sinwar was the mastermind of the 7 October incursion into Israel which saw 1,200 people killed and around 250 hostages taken back to Gaza, where around 100 are still said to be.

He was killed by the Israeli military on Wednesday after being found and identified in an apartment in Rafah.

Meanwhile, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned “anyone who tries to harm Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price”.

Those comments come after what Israel is describing as a Hezbollah assassination attempt on Netanyahu.

On Saturday morning, three drones targeted Netanyahu’s residence in the northern coastal town of Caesarea.

Two of the drones were shot down but one hit the building. Israeli authorities haven’t confirmed the extent of the damage but did say neither Netanyahu, nor his wife Sara, were in the house at the time of the attack.

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“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake. This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

Air strikes on the Lebanese capital continued through Saturday, marking the heaviest attack on Beirut in more than a week.

Lebanese authorities say the extent of damage and casualty numbers are still being assessed.

And the IDF said around 180 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel, with one 50-year-old man killed after being hit by shrapnel in the north.

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