IDF says troops close to capturing Hezbollah stronghold Bint Jbeil; over 100 gunmen killed

The Israeli military has nearly completed capturing the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100 members of the terror group in the area in the process, according to the IDF.

The operation in Bint Jbeil is being led by the 98th Division with its Paratroopers and Commando brigades, along with the Givati Infantry Brigade.

The IDF says it initially isolated and encircled the town to prevent Hezbollah from bringing in reinforcements or escaping.

At least 150 Hezbollah operatives, including members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, were estimated by the IDF to have been in the Bint Jbeil area ahead of the operation.

The 98th Division also carried out several commando operations as it worked to secure the town, a military official says.

“Over the past week, the forces completed the encirclement and launched an offensive in the town of Bint Jbeil,” the IDF says in a statement. “The troops eliminated more than 100 terrorists from the Hezbollah terror organization in close-quarters combat and from the air, destroyed dozens of terrorist infrastructures, and located hundreds of weapons in the area.”

Since the IDF began its offensive in Bint Jbeil, the military has not detected any attacks from the town on Israel. IDF troops have come under fire by Hezbollah from Bint Jbeil, though a military official says the rate is slowing.

The official says he estimates that it will likely take a few more days to complete the operations in Bint Jbeil, during which the division aims to kill the remaining few dozen operatives there and locate the terror group’s infrastructure.

Bint Jbeil is considered a Hezbollah symbol. In May 2000, after the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon following an 18-year occupation, then-Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah delivered a victory speech in Bint Jbeil, where he infamously described Israel as “weaker than a spider web.”

During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the IDF battled Hezbollah in the town but failed to capture it fully.