The Israeli military on Tuesday said it found and destroyed a large Hezbollah tunnel network used by elite fighters, as it ordered a wave of new evacuations from Lebanon’s battle-scarred south.
Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since early March, sending troops into south Lebanon to battle the Iran-backed militant group, with the violence ongoing despite a shaky April 17 ceasefire. Track updates on Iran US war
In Qantara, troops found “two Hezbollah terror tunnels, constructed over approximately a decade” that stretched two kilometres (1.2 miles), using “over 450 tonnes of explosives” to demolish them, an army statement said.
Lebanese state media said an Israeli detonation had left a “large crater” in Qantara, after earlier reporting a “major demolition operation” in the town.
AFP images showed two large columns of smoke rising from the site, which was visible from miles away.
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An Israeli military source described it as a “massive underground military installation” comprising an 800-metre tunnel and a second which ran for 1.2 kilometres, that was used as “an assembly area” for Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces.
Running under civilian infrastructure, including a school and a mosque, the tunnels were equipped with sleeping quarters, showers, toilets, kitchenettes and five assembly halls, he said, indicating it was “designed, sponsored and paid for by Iran”.
“Today we blew up a huge Hezbollah terror tunnel,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowing to continue targeting the militants’ infrastructure.
‘No territorial ambitions’
Despite the truce, Israel and Hezbollah have both engaged in fighting, trading blame over their alleged violations.
During the evening, the Lebanese health ministry said one person was killed and 15 were hurt — among them five children and five women — in an Israeli strike on Jwaya, an area about 20 kilometres further west.
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The strike came after Israel issued a fresh evacuation order aimed at residents in more than a dozen villages and towns, urging them to immediately head northwards.
Despite the order, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel had “no territorial ambitions in Lebanon” and would leave south Lebanon when “Hezbollah and other terror organisations.. are dismantled”.
Tuesday’s evacuation warning urged residents to leave “immediately” and move “towards the Sidon District,” the army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X.
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Shortly afterwards, state media said Israel carried out airstrikes across the south, hitting targets including the named areas, all of which appear to be outside or on the border of the “yellow line”.
On three separate occasions on Tuesday, the military said it sought to intercept “a suspicious aerial target” where troops were operating, without saying what it was.
It also said Hezbollah had launched a number of explosive drones that detonated adjacent to IDF soldiers, but nobody was hurt.
In a similar incident the day earlier, a soldier was severely wounded and another lightly hurt “as a result of an explosive drone impact”, it said.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.