Israel says ready for more strikes on Hezbollah after tunnel detonation

A screengrab showing a massive explosion that Israel says destroyed key underground infrastructure built by Hezbollah.

JERUSALEM – Israel said on Sept 11 it was prepared for more strikes on Hezbollah after demolishing tunnels built by the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon with a massive explosion.

“We are ready and prepared to continue the campaign, to continue striking Hezbollah and at additional locations,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video message.

Israel on Sept 10 blew up what it described as a vast network of tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge where Hezbollah kept a command centre, living quarters and stocks of weapons with which to strike northern Israel and invading Israeli troops.

A huge fireball was seen in the area, with the US Geological Survey recording a tremor equivalent to a 4.1-magnitude earthquake.

The blast came a week after Israeli troops said they had seized the strategic highlands as they solidified control of a “security zone” in southern Lebanon.

“We promised protection to the residents of the north and we delivered,” Katz said in his message, which came on the eve of the Jewish new year and weeks ahead of tight elections.

“Now there is a strong security zone, stronger than ever before, which protects the communities from attack and direct fire, and enables us to maintain control and threaten Hezbollah deep inside the area.”

Eyal Zamir, chief of staff of the Israeli army, vowed in a video message published by the army on Friday that “any attack on the communities in northern Israel or on the IDF troops defending them will be met with an immediate and forceful response”.

Referencing talks between Israel and Lebanon about the possibility that the Lebanese army would deploy in parts of southern Lebanon, Zamir said it “must demonstrate effectiveness on the ground” there.

“Otherwise, it will not be possible to advance the agreement signed between the governments of Israel and Lebanon,” he warned.

Israel said the tunnel network was built over two decades with the help of Hezbollah’s patron Iran, whose clerical government has also backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and the US attacked Iran in late February, sparking the Middle East war.

Hezbollah, founded to oppose an earlier Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon that began in 1982, dragged the country into the wider conflict when it fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Iran.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli military operations in the country have killed more than 4,300 people since March.

The Israeli army said that the Ali al-Taher network comprised tunnels extending for more than 2km that held dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles and drones, as well as other weapons.

The ridge lies on the edge of Israel’s self-styled security zone just a few kilometres from the UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle, another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months. AFP