Israel says it has destroyed major underground Hezbollah base
The powerful blast registered as the equivalent of a magnitude 4.1 earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.
Israel says it has destroyed a major underground Hezbollah base
The Israeli military said it blew up more than a mile of tunnels
Israel’s military says it has destroyed a large underground complex run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
It said it used more than 1,000 tonnes of explosives to demolish two tunnels stretching more than 2km (1.2 miles) under the Ali Taher Ridge.
According to the US Geological Survey, the blast caused seismic activity equal to a magnitude 4.1 earthquake.
There was no immediate public reaction from Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.
Israeli forces seized control of the ridge last week after months of fighting there with the Iran-backed group. The Israeli military occupies a large swathe of southern Lebanon captured after the conflict with Hezbollah resumed in March.
Images released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) showed a fireball illuminating the sky.
"The sky lit up and about 15 seconds later we heard the terrifying sound," Ahamed, a resident in Nabatieh, about 6km west of the ridge, told the BBC.
"The house shook all together as if it was literally an earthquake."
He said people were shouting and children were crying, and that cars packed the roads as residents headed for Beirut.
Tremors were also felt in the coastal city of Saida, 40km north.
The IDF said the underground site included a command centre used by Hezbollah's Badr unit and held dozens of rockets, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, along with anti-tank weapons, mines and explosives.
"This was strategic infrastructure that was constructed over two decades, funded and planned by the Iranian terror regime," the IDF said in a statement on Telegram.
"All of the terrorists who were inside the infrastructure were eliminated or fled."
The IDF said destroying the complex completed a mission to eliminate eight tunnels and create a "security zone" in the area.
The latest operation comes amid renewed fighting in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have widened operations against Hezbollah positions and continue to hold what Israel calls a security zone near the border.
Lebanese media reported new Israeli strikes elsewhere in the south on Thursday, including Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Mansouri in the Tyre district.
The Lebanese army has stepped up deployments in areas outside Israeli control, including the southern city of Nabatieh, in an effort to bolster stability and reassure residents, local television station MTV reported.
Lebanon was drawn into the war between Israel, the US and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.
Israel answered with a bombing campaign across Lebanon and an invasion of a significant part of the country's south. Its forces still occupy roughly 5% of Lebanese territory.
Fighting eased after a ceasefire deal between Iran and the US in June, along with a separate agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
Under the Lebanon-Israel framework, Hezbollah is expected to disarm, Israeli forces are to withdraw gradually from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army is to deploy across the area.
Hezbollah was not directly part of the agreement and has rejected direct negotiations.
Even with the drop in fighting, Israeli strikes and demolitions in southern Lebanon have continued.
At least 4,362 people have been killed in Lebanon during the conflict, including 395 women and 259 children, according to the health ministry, whose figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israeli authorities say 40 Israeli soldiers and four civilians have been killed.