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The Israeli military said yesterday it struck southern Lebanon after Hizbollah launched a drone attack towards Israeli soldiers. Three people were killed and 23 were injured in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
The wounded included medics, in addition to women and children, the ministry said.
Israel’s military has cleared Hizbollah fighters holed up in tunnels under the strategic Ali Al Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said yesterday, though the Iran-backed group did not immediately comment.
Israel had said Hizbollah fighters were embedded in tunnels under the ridge, which overlooks a wide area and had become one of the most hotly contested areas in the Israel-Hizbollah war, despite a ceasefire announced in June.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Iran had warned the United States last month that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli assault on its Hizbollah allies’ positions within the ridge.
“The mission was completed and the tunnels were cleared of terrorists,” Katz said on social media, after a statement by the military late on Thursday saying it had operational control of the ridge.
The military said some Hizbollah fighters had been ‘eliminated’, while others had fled.
A Lebanese military officer said Israeli troops had seized the southern entrances to the complex and could monitor the northern entrances through surveillance drones.
The complex included various tunnels and storage areas, some of which were not connected to one another, and it was unclear how far the troops had penetrated, and whether any fighters were still there, or might have booby-trapped parts of the complex, the officer said.
Hizbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters was not able to verify the status of the ridge independently.
Hizbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores within the ridge and had said it would resist any Israeli assault.
Israel has expanded its military presence across swathes of southern Lebanon since launching a new campaign against Hizbollah in March.
Yesterday, Israeli authorities released four people who had been held in Israeli prisons after being detained by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. They were transferred to Lebanese authorities via the International Committee of the Red Cross, a day after one Lebanese man was released.
Israel said on Thursday that none of the five had been found to have ties to militant groups.
Hussein Ayyash, a 33-year-old released yesterday, said he was driving in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit nearly three months ago when Israeli soldiers approached and ordered him out of his car.
He said he was blindfolded and handcuffed, and then slept several days in various homes in southern Lebanon before being transferred into Israel and held in solitary confinement, sometimes for up to 30 days.
“Then they move you to prison, a normal room. There are places, called a cage, you sit in it. There are some people – Syrian nationals, Lebanese nationals, Palestinian nationals – all the nationalities, the different ones, are in prison. You get moved from room to room every once in a while, every 40 days, 30 days,” Ayyash told Reuters.
He said he was asked whether he had ties to Hizbollah, and was not tortured but suffered mental strain.
“You have to talk. They have all the information. Psychological pressure isn’t easy – you’re in a country that isn’t yours, you’re with people you don’t know, and you don’t know when you’ll leave,” he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about Ayyash’s detention.
The release of the detainees is part of confidence-building measures agreed in US-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel.
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