The Israeli army revealed on Tuesday that it has been conducting raids in southern Lebanon for months, uncovering Hezbollah tunnels, weapon caches, and invasion plans by the group. These operations, which had been kept under wraps, are now being declassified in the wake of Israel's ground operation against Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon. 

Hours after Israel's official ground offensive began, the Israeli military disclosed that over 70 covert raids had already been carried out by Israeli special forces since the start of the war. These operations resulted in the destruction of numerous Hezbollah positions, tunnels, and thousands of weapons that could have been used to launch an invasion of Israel, the military claimed. 

According to the Israeli army, troops managed to covertly infiltrate approximately 1,000 Hezbollah sites, some located kilometers away from the Israeli-Lebanese border. The sites included tunnels and bunkers within Lebanese villages and forested areas, where Hezbollah stored a large stockpile of weapons. These raids were conducted silently, without detection, and remarkably, there were no direct clashes with Hezbollah fighters during any of the operations.

Israeli intelligence assessments indicated that some 2,400 Hezbollah fighters from the elite Radwan force, along with 500 Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants trained by Hezbollah, were positioned in southern Lebanese villages, poised to launch attacks on Israel following Hamas’s assault on October 7. Anticipating an invasion from the north, Israel’s Northern Command had fortified its defenses along the border and launched multiple strikes against Hezbollah positions. These preemptive measures forced Hezbollah fighters to retreat several kilometers from the border area.

The Israeli army's raids, which often lasted several days and involved combat engineers, spanned 200 nights of operations. The military showcased an array of weapons recovered during these missions, including assault rifles, machine guns, RPGs, anti-tank missiles, and various explosive devices. However, officials noted that the weapons retrieved represent less than 1 percent of the total arsenal discovered in Hezbollah’s bunkers, as the soldiers faced logistical challenges in transporting the large caches through rough terrain.

While these commando operations were deemed successful, military officials acknowledged that they were insufficient to achieve Israel’s broader war objective — securing the northern border and enabling displaced residents to return to their homes. As a result, the Israeli army launched a new phase of operations, described as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” involving a full division to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border region.

Unlike the previous covert missions, the current ground operation allows the military to conduct more overt and large-scale destruction of Hezbollah’s tunnel networks and other key sites, the Israeli army said. 

The military emphasized that the current offensive is not intended to be prolonged, with the goal of completing it within a few weeks. The Israeli army said it has no plans to maintain a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Instead, the aim is to reinforce Israel’s border defenses and surveillance capabilities following the operation, ensuring that Hezbollah cannot re-establish its presence in the area.