Article By Wassim Samih Seifeddine, Khaled Yousef, and Lina Altawell
Nearly 50 fighters reportedly killed as Israeli forces target Hezbollah tunnels and infrastructure in southern Lebanon
The Israeli army carried out a series of explosions and shelling in southern Lebanon early Friday, including demolishing part of a school, despite the US-mediated framework agreement.
The escalation comes as Israel’s election campaign intensifies, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to rally and unite his right-wing bloc ahead of the Oct. 27 elections.
“Israeli forces blew up most of the public school in the town of Mansouri in Tyre district, leaving only a small part of the building standing,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said.
Israeli aircraft also launched a strike on Mansouri at the same time as the large explosion at the school, the agency added.
At dawn, the Israeli army detonated explosives on the hill of Baraachit in Bint Jbeil district, coinciding with artillery shelling that targeted Wadi al-Hujair.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli army carried out a powerful explosion in the Ali al-Taher heights, causing ground tremors. It claimed the blast targeted a tunnel network and Hezbollah infrastructure extending more than 1.2 miles (2 kilometers).
Israeli Army Radio military correspondent Doron Kadosh said Israeli forces that had entered the Ali al-Taher heights had withdrawn and were stationed behind the front lines in the Beaufort Castle area.
In a post on the US social media company X on Friday, Kadosh claimed that the Israeli army had given fighters in the area a chance to surrender, but they refused, and that nearly 50 fighters were killed as Israeli forces prepared to withdraw and remotely control the hilltop.
He further claimed that Israeli forces intercepted supply shipments that Hezbollah tried to send to the fighters by drones.
Kadosh said the Israeli army destroyed the tunnels using 1,100 tons of explosives.
He quoted a senior Israeli officer who led the operation, without naming him, as saying it was “one of the most complex operations carried out by the army in recent years.”
On Thursday, Netanyahu claimed that Israel had destroyed what he described as “the largest Iranian site outside Iran,” referring to the Ali al-Taher tunnels.
The Ali al-Taher hill is located between the towns of Kfar Tibnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa, north of the Litani River. It rises around 1,970 feet (600 meters) above sea level, giving it strategic importance as it overlooks wide areas of southern Lebanon.
Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have continued despite a “framework formula” signed by Beirut and Tel Aviv on June 26, which provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory in return for the deployment of the Lebanese army in those areas.
Israel occupies areas in southern Lebanon, some of them for decades and others since the war between 2023 and 2024, while expanding its presence inside Lebanese territory during its ongoing assault.
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