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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has blown up Hezbollah’s tunnel system beneath the Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced in a joint statement on July 31.
The statement said that the military used up to 700 tons of explosives to demolish the underground facility. The demolition was planned for an earlier date but was postponed because of the ceasefire.
Netanyahu and Katz said the destruction of the tunnel system at this time comes in response to Hezbollah’s “blatant” violation of the ceasefire agreement a day earlier, by targeting an unmanned D9 armored bulldozer of the IDF with a suicide drone.
The tunnel served as a “central part of the Hezbollah terror organization’s invasion plan against the Galilee communities,” according to the statement.
“The State of Israel will not accept any violation of the ceasefire agreement. Any attempt by Hezbollah to harm IDF troops or Israeli civilians will be met with a severe and powerful response that will exact a heavy price from the terrorist organization,”. Netanyahu and Katz said, adding that the IDF “will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon and will continue to destroy all terror infrastructure in order to prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to restore its capabilities.”
In a separate statement, the IDF confirmed that it had demolished “several key underground routes in the Beaufort Ridge area.”
“Over the past several weeks, IDF troops completed securing the Beaufort Ridge area, while taking control of and clearing the underground infrastructure and preparing it for destruction,” the military said.
The Beaufort Ridge and the castel atop of it were captured by the IDF more than a month ago in a ground offensive that saw Israeli troops crossing the Litani River. The offensive was costly, with several troops killed by Hezbollah fire. A further push from Beaufort towards another ridge known as Ali al-Taher — also reported to house a Hezbollah underground tunnel base — failed miserably, with the IDF taking more casualties.
The IDF’s decision to blow up a tunnel in response to Hezbollah’s latest drone attack instead of launching strikes shows that Israel is not currently interested in further escalation on the front with Lebanon. Israel is most likely keeping its focus on Iran, at least for the time being.
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