Beneath a ridge in southern Lebanon, Israel detonated over a thousand tonnes of explosives, collapsing a vast underground network that Hezbollah had spent two decades building. The blast shook the earth with the force of a small earthquake, reaching families forty kilometers away who had hoped a ceasefire framework might finally hold. It is a reminder that formal agreements and the lived reality of war are often separated by a great and painful distance — and that for the 330,000 Lebanese still displaced, the silence of peace has not yet arrived.
Israel destroys major Hezbollah underground complex with 1,000-tonne blast
At least 4,383 people killed in Lebanon since March 2, including 395 women and 259 children; 330,000 remain displaced; residents experienced panic and evacuation during the blast.
The house shook all together as if it was literally an earthquake.
Mark
Why does destroying this one tunnel complex matter enough to report on it separately? Isn't Israel conducting operations regularly?
Mimi
The scale is what distinguishes it. A thousand tonnes of explosives creating a 4.1 magnitude earthquake—that's not routine. It's a statement of capability and intent. The IDF is signaling that they can reach deep infrastructure Hezbollah spent two decades building.
Luke
But we should be careful here. The IDF says everyone inside was killed or fled. We have no independent confirmation of that. We're reporting their claim as fact.
Mimi
Fair point. What we know for certain is the blast happened, it was massive, and it destroyed the tunnels. The casualty claims are from one side.
Mark
The ceasefire was supposed to stop this kind of thing, wasn't it?
Mimi
Technically, yes. But the framework has never fully held. Israeli forces remain in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah hasn't disarmed, and operations continue on both sides.
Luke
The ceasefire is more of a reduction in intensity than an actual end to hostilities. That's the real story—the agreement exists but the conflict persists.
Mark
What about the people living there? How are they experiencing this?
Mimi
Terrified. A man in Nabatieh described the sky lighting up and then a sound so loud his house shook like an earthquake. People evacuated immediately. That panic is real, whether or not the casualty figures are.
Luke
And 330,000 are still displaced. That's the number that should sit with us—not the tonnage of explosives, but the number of people who can't go home.
Mark
Is there any indication this ends soon?
Mimi
Not really. The framework exists but neither side is fully complying. Israel says it's establishing a security zone. Hezbollah hasn't disarmed. The Lebanese army is trying to stabilize things, but they're working in a space where Israeli forces still occupy territory.
Il Polso
- Israel destroyed a 2km underground Hezbollah command complex beneath Ali Taher Ridge using more than 1,000 tonnes of explosives, producing a fireball visible for miles and a tremor felt 40km away.
- Residents of Nabatieh described a terrifying flash followed seconds later by a sound that shook their homes like an earthquake — within minutes, roads filled with families fleeing toward Beirut.
- Neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese government issued an immediate response, leaving a vacuum of official narrative as the IDF released imagery and declared its eight-tunnel demolition mission complete.
- A June ceasefire framework calls for Hezbollah disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal, but Hezbollah has rejected the terms and Israeli strikes have continued unabated across the south.
- With at least 4,383 people killed in Lebanon since March — including hundreds of women and children — and 330,000 still displaced, the destruction of the tunnel complex lands not as an endpoint but as another chapter in an unresolved war.
Beneath a ridge in southern Lebanon, Israel detonated over a thousand tonnes of explosives, collapsing a vast underground network that Hezbollah had spent two decades building. The blast shook the earth with the force of a small earthquake, reaching families forty kilometers away who had hoped a ceasefire framework might finally hold. It is a reminder that formal agreements and the lived reality of war are often separated by a great and painful distance — and that for the 330,000 Lebanese still displaced, the silence of peace has not yet arrived.
On a Thursday in September, Israel's military detonated more than a thousand tonnes of explosives beneath the Ali Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon, collapsing two tunnels stretching over two kilometers. The US Geological Survey recorded the blast as a magnitude 4.1 earthquake — strong enough to rattle homes in the coastal city of Saida, forty kilometers away.
The IDF described the complex as a Hezbollah command center operated by its Badr unit, built over two decades with Iranian funding. Inside, they said, were rockets, missiles, drones, anti-tank weapons, and explosives. The operation, according to Israeli forces, completed the destruction of eight tunnels in the area and secured what they call a buffer zone.
In Nabatieh, six kilometers from the ridge, a resident named Ahamed watched the sky ignite before the sound reached him — a fifteen-second gap between light and the shockwave that shook his house. People screamed. Children cried. Cars quickly packed the roads as families drove toward Beirut.
The blast came within a conflict that began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel following a strike that killed Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with a bombing campaign and ground invasion, and now occupies roughly five percent of Lebanese territory. A ceasefire framework agreed in June calls for Hezbollah disarmament and a phased Israeli withdrawal, but Hezbollah has rejected the terms, and Israeli military operations have continued.
Lebanon's health ministry reports at least 4,383 people killed since March, including 395 women and 259 children. Some 330,000 remain displaced. For them, the fireball over Ali Taher Ridge was not a conclusion — it was confirmation that the war, whatever the diplomats have signed, is still very much underway.
On Thursday, Israel's military detonated more than a thousand tonnes of explosives beneath the Ali Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon, collapsing two underground tunnels that stretched for more than two kilometers. The blast registered with the force of a magnitude 4.1 earthquake according to the US Geological Survey—powerful enough that residents felt it trembling through their homes forty kilometers away in the coastal city of Saida.
The Israeli Defense Forces said the complex they destroyed was a command center operated by Hezbollah's Badr unit, built and expanded over two decades with funding and planning from Iran. Inside, they said, were dozens of rockets and missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, anti-tank weapons, mines, and explosives. The IDF claimed that all fighters inside were either killed or had fled the site. The operation, they stated, completed their mission to destroy eight tunnels in the area and establish what they describe as a security zone.
In Nabatieh, a town about six kilometers west of the ridge, the explosion turned the sky bright with a fireball. A resident named Ahamed told the BBC that the blast came first—a terrifying sound arriving roughly fifteen seconds after the light. His house shook as if struck by an actual earthquake. People screamed. Children cried. Within minutes, cars filled the roads as residents fled toward Beirut, seeking distance from the site.
Neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese government issued an immediate public statement. The Israeli military, however, released images of the fireball and characterized the destroyed infrastructure as a strategic asset built by what it called the Iranian terror regime. This operation came after Israeli forces took control of the Ali Taher Ridge the previous week, following months of fighting in the area.
The destruction marks the latest phase of a conflict that began on March 2, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with a bombing campaign across Lebanon and a ground invasion that has left Israeli forces occupying roughly five percent of Lebanese territory. A ceasefire framework between Lebanon and Israel was agreed in June, alongside a separate deal between Iran and the United States, but the fighting has not fully stopped. Israeli strikes and demolitions in southern Lebanon have continued despite the agreement.
Under the Lebanon-Israel framework, Hezbollah is supposed to disarm, Israeli forces are to withdraw gradually, and the Lebanese army is to deploy across the south. Hezbollah rejected direct involvement in the negotiations and has not agreed to the terms. The Lebanese army has increased its own deployments in areas outside Israeli control, including Nabatieh, in an effort to stabilize the region and reassure residents who remain deeply unsettled.
The human toll continues to mount. Lebanon's health ministry reports at least 4,383 people killed by Israeli attacks since March 2—including 395 women and 259 children—though the figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. At least twenty-nine were killed in the week of this operation alone. On the Israeli side, authorities report forty soldiers and four civilians killed in the same period. Beyond the dead, the UN estimates that approximately 330,000 people in Lebanon remain displaced by the conflict, unable to return home because of ongoing Israeli military activity, air strikes, destruction, and restrictions on movement in occupied areas. The blast at Ali Taher Ridge, for many of those displaced, was a reminder that despite the ceasefire framework, the war in southern Lebanon continues.
Citazioni salienti
The sky lit up and about 15 seconds later we heard the terrifying sound. The house shook all together as if it was literally an earthquake.— Ahamed, a resident in Nabatieh, to the BBC
This was strategic infrastructure that was constructed over two decades, funded and planned by the Iranian terror regime. All of the terrorists who were inside the infrastructure were eliminated or fled.— Israeli Defense Forces statement
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