Israeli forces detonated two kilometers of sophisticated underground tunnels in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, revealing an extensive Iranian-funded military infrastructure that Israeli defense officials said was built 80 feet underground with Iranian guidance and funding. The blast registered as a seismic event, underscoring the scale of the threat that had been positioned just 10 kilometers from Israel's border.
Iranian-Built Military Infrastructure
The Israeli military said the network included two large tunnels, one approximately 800 meters long and the other 1.2 kilometers long, equipped with sleeping rooms, toilets, kitchen facilities and launchers aimed at Israel. An Israeli military official said the network included large rooms where over 100 Hezbollah fighters could gather at once and that it ran underneath and alongside a mosque, school and soccer field. The military detonated a large explosion late Tuesday in Qantara, and Israel's Geological Survey said the blast was so powerful it registered as a "seismic event."
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army had been instructed to destroy any Hezbollah infrastructure it finds in southern Lebanon "just like in Gaza." Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said, "we are not done yet" after destroying the Hezbollah tunnels in southern Lebanon, and said, "I gave instructions a few weeks ago for a special project to eliminate the drone threats. It will take time — but we will blow that up too."
Ongoing Military Operations
Israeli airstrikes also hit the villages of Chakra, Tebnine and Kafra in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, and a drone strike hit a motorcycle in the village of Mansouri, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. There was no immediate information about possible casualties. The strike came as Israel's military asked residents of 16 southern villages to evacuate, saying Hezbollah is using the communities to launch attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said several explosive drones detonated near Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon, causing no injuries. It also fired interceptors at another drone detected above the area occupied by the troops, and said the results of that attempted interception were under review. A shaky temporary ceasefire is in effect in Lebanon, but both sides accuse each other of violating the agreement.
The Israeli military said it had killed an Israeli military contractor in southern Lebanon. A brief statement by the Israeli army said the civilian employee of an engineering company was working with the military on projects in southern Lebanon. It said his family had been notified but did not offer details on how he was killed Tuesday.
Casualties and Diplomatic Tensions
The Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on a Lebanese army patrol in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near the coastal city of Tyre, killed five people, including three paramedics, and wounded two soldiers. The Lebanese army and Civil Defense said the patrol was accompanying Civil Defense medical teams and bulldozers during a rescue operation at the site of a previous Israeli strike, and that some responders were trapped under rubble by the second strike. The Western-backed Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines during the recent rounds of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, although dozens of its soldiers have been killed.
Lebanon's Health Ministry later raised the death toll of the Israel-Hezbollah war to 2,534 and said 7,863 had been wounded since the war broke out on March 2. The war has displaced more than 1 million people and caused destruction worth billions of dollars.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike, saying it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on rescue and emergency workers in violation of international law. Israeli ambassador Danny Danon said Lebanon would not have sovereignty "as long as Hezbollah controls the territory" and said, "Lebanon will not be able to talk about sovereignty as long as Hezbollah continues to fire on Israeli civilians and operate without interference." Danon said that if the U.N. Security Council wants to help Lebanon, it should ask the government how many Hezbollah weapons it has seized, "which tunnels have been destroyed and what is being done to stop arms smuggling from Iran." He said, "International support for Lebanon must depend on results on the ground and not more empty statements."
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said Israel had "no territorial ambitions" in Lebanon and that the Israeli military-controlled "buffer zone" stretching 10 kilometers into Lebanon was necessary to protect residents in Israel's north. Saar said, "Hezbollah has transformed the entire front line of southern Lebanon into a network of terrorist infrastructure, and this threat has not been properly addressed by the Lebanese government." He also said Israel's first direct negotiations with Lebanon in decades were important and could be "an opening to a different, better future," but that the Lebanese government must take practical steps to restore its sovereignty against de facto Iranian control in its territory.
Why This Matters:
The discovery and destruction of Iranian-funded tunnel networks demonstrates the extent to which Tehran has embedded military infrastructure into civilian areas of Lebanon, raising fundamental questions about Lebanese sovereignty and the effectiveness of international peacekeeping arrangements. The scale of the infrastructure—capable of housing over 100 fighters with advanced facilities positioned beneath schools and mosques—reveals a deliberate strategy to exploit civilian protection while preparing for attacks on Israeli territory. With the war having displaced over 1 million people and caused billions in destruction in less than 2 months, the conflict underscores the costs of allowing proxy forces to operate with impunity within sovereign borders. Israel's insistence on practical measures to restore Lebanese government control, rather than relying on diplomatic assurances, reflects a security-first approach that prioritizes tangible results over international statements.