Revealed: IDF destroyed 700 Hezbollah targets, including tunnels, in commando raids over past year

Israeli soldiers have been entering Lebanon in commando raids since the start of the war, and have destroyed over 700 Hezbollah targets in that time, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari revealed on Tuesday afternoon.

In a televised speech, he said: “The operations that we de-classified tonight are only a small number of dozens of operations that we will reveal going forward, including the destruction of Hezbollah's strategic assets and capabilities.”

“Hezbollah had built, prepared, and equipped this infrastructure over many years in preparation for the day that it would carry out an invasion into northern Israel.”

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During dozens of operations spanning approximately 200 nights of raids, the IDF entered Hezbollah positions along the border with Lebanon, including underground infrastructure, up to 3 kilometers (less than 2 miles) from the border.

According to Hezbollah, these forward positions had been readied for a large-scale invasion into northern Israel and the “conquest of the Galilee,” and were stocked with weapons, ammunition, and provisions.

In his speech, Hagari revealed a map belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force that was found during the raids.

“As you can see on the map, there is a key marking Israeli communities, IDF posts, access roads and targets for attack. We found this map in one of the compounds that was supposed to be used by thousands of Hezbollah terrorists on the day they carried out their invasion,” said Hagari.

Some of the raids lasted 2 to 3 days, according to Army Radio. Hezbollah didn’t identify the operations and didn’t attack the Israeli forces, the only casualties being two soldiers who were wounded; one from a booby-trap and the other from an old unexploded bomb.

In the mostly night-time operations, Israeli special forces destroyed over 30 tons of charges and anti-tank mines, 450 RPG missiles, hundreds of personal weapons, 20 Cornet and 30 other anti-tank missiles, four Iranian-made RGP rockets, 120 missiles of different types, two Iranian-made anti-aircraft missiles, and dozens of night vision devices.

They also found more than 1,000 intelligence documents, dozens of cameras, maps, aerial photographs, means of observation and collection, binoculars, and other items.

“The fighters raided the villages and areas, broke through underground hatches in the targets along the border, exposed weapons caches, terrorist staging areas and more,” Hagari said.

“Our war is not with the people of Lebanon, it's with Hezbollah,” the spokesman added, before closing with an appeal to the international community.

“For years, Israel has warned the world that Hezbollah is violating international law and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which prohibits the presence of armed militants and weapons in southern Lebanon. This was a resolution that the international community agreed on and Lebanon and UNIFIL failed to enforce.”

“No country would agree to the presence of a murderous terrorist organization along its borders and the State of Israel has the right and the obligation to do what 1701 failed to do. We will continue presenting our findings to the international community, including evidence that we brought back from inside Hezbollah's strongholds along our border,” Hagari said.