The IDF said Saturday evening that it had been ordered to stop firing in southern Lebanon, even as it maintained operational control over one of Hezbollah’s main strongholds in the south, the fortified Ali Taher ridge complex near the city of Nabatieh. The underground site, built with Iranian help, is described by security officials as one of Hezbollah’s central nodes in the area, where southern-front fighting is directed, fire systems are operated, and large quantities of weapons are stored.
An IDF senior officer said the position is so deeply fortified that airstrikes alone have difficulty damaging it. "We must not withdraw from there," he said. "This is a moral mission aimed at protecting the residents of the north." According to the same official, dozens of Hezbollah operatives are trapped inside the compound with no way out.
Israeli officials believe that may explain Hezbollah’s intensified rocket fire in recent days, as the group tries to ease pressure on its encircled fighters. The latest exchanges came amid mutual accusations by Israel and Hezbollah that the ceasefire agreement had been violated.
Hezbollah said 111 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the weekend, following the tank disaster in which IDF armored battalion commander Lt. Col. Dor Ben Shimon and three other soldiers were killed. A senior Israeli official said in the afternoon, against the backdrop of Iran’s dramatic announcement closing the Strait of Hormuz, that the IDF had been instructed to stop firing in Lebanon. The soldiers were killed overnight between Thursday and Friday during an operation in the village of Tebnine near the ridge, part of the effort to seize the Hezbollah underground complex. The army initially did not know what hit the tank, but the senior officer later said it was struck from outside, likely by an explosive drone or an anti-tank missile, and not by an operational accident as had first been examined.
