Israel Destroys Massive Hezbollah Tunnel Complex Beneath Southern Lebanon Ridge

The Israeli military said Thursday it destroyed a vast underground complex operated by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, collapsing tunnels that served as a command and weapons hub for the Iran-backed group. The strike sent a fireball into the night sky, shook homes miles away and registered on seismic monitors across the region, ranking among the largest single operations in months of renewed fighting.

Israel said it used more than 1,000 tonnes of explosives to destroy two tunnels spanning more than 2 km -- roughly 1.2 miles -- beneath the Ali Taher Ridge. The detonation triggered ground shaking equivalent to a magnitude 4.1 earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Israel Defense Forces called the site "strategic infrastructure that was constructed over two decades, funded and planned by the Iranian terror regime." The complex, officials said, contained a command centre used by Hezbollah's Badr unit and stockpiles of dozens of rockets, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, along with anti-tank weapons, mines and explosives.

A Blast Felt Miles Away

Residents described a night of terror as the explosion lit the horizon. "The sky lit up and about 15 seconds later we heard the terrifying sound," said Ahamed, a resident of Nabatieh, about 6 km west of the ridge. "The house shook all together as if it was literally an earthquake."

He said families fled to Beirut as cars jammed the roads, and that tremors were felt as far north as the coastal city of Saida, some 40 km away. The IDF released footage showing a fireball rising over the ridgeline.

Israeli forces seized the ridge last week after months of fighting with Hezbollah fighters entrenched in the area. The military said the operation completed a mission to destroy eight tunnels and establish what it describes as a security zone along the frontier.

An Iranian Project Two Decades in the Making

The underground network was not improvised. According to the IDF, it was built over 20 years with Iranian funding and direction, part of a broader effort by Tehran to entrench its proxy on Israel's northern border.

Israel said all fighters inside the infrastructure were killed or fled before the blast. The strike came as Israeli forces continue to expand operations against Hezbollah positions in the south and to hold what they call a security zone near the border. Lebanese media reported additional Israeli strikes Thursday in the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area and in Mansouri, in the Tyre district.

For Israel, the ridge represented a rare opportunity to strike at infrastructure that could not easily be replaced, a network of tunnels and storage bunkers that Hezbollah had spent years hardening against air power.

The Wider Lebanon Campaign

Lebanon was pulled into the wider conflict between Israel, the United States and Iran on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with a bombing campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, and its forces still occupy roughly 5 percent of Lebanese territory.

Fighting eased after an Iran-U.S. ceasefire in June and a separate Lebanon-Israel framework agreement. That deal calls for Hezbollah to disarm, for Israeli forces to withdraw gradually and for the Lebanese army to deploy across the south. Hezbollah, which was not party to the agreement, has rejected direct negotiations and has yet to surrender its weapons.

The United Nations estimates about 330,000 people in Lebanon remain displaced by the conflict. Lebanon's health ministry says at least 4,383 people have been killed in the country since March, a figure that does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

What to Watch Next

Hezbollah and the Lebanese government offered no immediate public response to the destruction of the ridge complex. The silence is telling: the group's most hardened infrastructure, built with Iranian money and decades of planning, was reduced to rubble in a single strike.

The Lebanese army has begun reinforcing positions outside Israeli control, including in Nabatieh, in an effort to reassure residents and stabilize the south. Whether Hezbollah will finally embrace disarmament -- or try to rebuild what Israel just destroyed -- is the central question hanging over the fragile framework.

For now, Israel's message is unambiguous. It intends to keep clearing and holding the ground it deems necessary for its security, one tunnel network at a time.