‘Anyone who approaches Ali Taher Ridge will be destroyed,’ warns Defense Minister Katz

Defense Minister Israel Katz vows that “anyone who approaches the Ali Taher Ridge will be destroyed,” after the military demolished Hezbollah’s tunnels beneath the hill last week.

The IDF withdrew troops from the hill to blow up the underground Hezbollah facility there on Thursday. Following the demolition, the military said it would “reorganize” its deployment in the area, but would remain in control of the ridge with surveillance and firepower.

“The IDF is operationally preparing to control the ridge and prevent any attempt by Hezbollah or any other party to return and establish itself there,” Katz says in a statement.

He says that the ridge remains part of Israel’s southern Lebanon buffer zone, and that the IDF “will not withdraw or redeploy until Hezbollah is disarmed throughout Lebanon.”