IDF hits Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, including smuggling tunnel on Syrian border
Military says tunnel in Beqaa Valley had been struck in the past, latest attack was to prevent its restoration; other facilities belonging to Lebanese terror group targeted
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israeli fighter jets carried out several airstrikes in Lebanon on Sunday evening, including against a tunnel between Lebanon and Syria used by the Hezbollah terror group to smuggle arms, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The IDF said the tunnel, in the Beqaa Valley, had also been struck in the past. “The IDF is determined to prevent restoration and use of this tunnel,” it said in a statement.
The Beqaa Valley area, a Hezbollah stronghold, is north of the Litani River, beyond which the Iran-backed group is required to withdraw under the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024 after more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war.
Additionally, the military said Sunday the Israeli Air Force targeted several Hezbollah sites in other areas of Lebanon, which included weapons and rocket launchers that “posed an immediate threat” to Israel.
According to the IDF, the targeted sites were “a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
Lebanese media reported a series of strikes in the Nabatieh area, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Israel, and in the Baalbek area in the Beqaa Valley, nearly 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Israel.
بالصور.. سلسلة غارات استهدفت وادي عزّة – دير الزهراني pic.twitter.com/ABANVjRS7T
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) February 9, 2025
The strikes came a day after the IAF struck what the IDF said were Hezbollah operatives at a weapons manufacturing site in eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley on Saturday. Lebanon’s state news agency reported six dead and two wounded in that strike.
The ongoing conflict began with Hezbollah’s cross-border rocket and drone attacks on October 8, 2023, the day after the Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists in a devastating invasion of southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and triggering war in the Gaza Strip.
The Iran-backed group said its attacks were to support Gaza. By the time the ceasefire came into effect, Israel had decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and depleted its fighting capabilities.
Under the deal, Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel’s border — while Israel is entitled to strike threats it considers imminent, and forward less imminent threats to a monitoring committee comprising representatives of Lebanon, Israel, France, the United States and UNIFIL.
Under the truce deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over 60 days.
The withdrawal period for Israeli forces was delayed to February 18 after Jerusalem requested an extension from the original January 26 deadline. Israel said that it needed to stay longer because the Lebanese army had not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon, as agreed.
In addition to pulling back its forces north of the Litani River, Hezbollah is also committed to dismantling any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel’s military says its forces have continued to uncover and seize Hezbollah weapons in prohibited areas and that the Lebanese army is not keeping to its part of the deal.
