WITH THE world’s war-watchers’ eyes on Iran – occasionally switching over to Ukraine – the ongoing Israeli attack on Lebanon is receiving little attention. Recent advances Israel has made have gone largely unreported.

Israel has been attacking, invading and occupying Lebanon for years. After the USA/Israeli attack on Iran on 28th February 2026, Iran-supported Hezbollah personnel in south Lebanon fired rockets at north Israel. This unleashed a massive counter-attack from Israel, which issued evacuation orders to Lebanese residents of south Lebanon – up to the capital Beirut. Israel then moved in to take out Hezbollah.

Hezbollah was dug in at the Ali al-Taher ridge, which is around ten miles away from the Israeli/Lebanon border, and the ridge soon became a focus for the Israeli attack. Israel claimed that Hezbollah had created an underground network of tunnels, perhaps a mile long, under the ridge. The tunnels, they said, contained personnel and weapons – rockets, missiles, drones, anti-tank missiles and mines. Israel believed the tunnels had taken two decades, and Iranian funding, to build.

The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) estimated the tunnels also housed 1,100 tons of explosives. The IDF also claimed that they had destroyed a further eight tunnels which formed a 5.4km network with those under the Ridge.

Last week Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israeli forces had driven out of the ridge area. Now they have bombed the tunnels to destroy Hezbollah’s military hardware and stop Hezbollah returning to the tunnels. The bombing was so severe that large clouds of smoke were seen from miles away. Shock waves akin to a significant earthquake were felt across a large part of south Lebanon. The US Geological Survey recorded a tremor with a magnitude of 4.1.

Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a joint statement on Thursday, 10th September, saying that it had consolidated its “security zone” in south Lebanon by driving Hezbollah out of the Ridge area and by destroying its underground infrastructure. They said that Israeli forces would remain in occupation of the area to ensure that Hezbollah could not return.

The welcome move by the UK and other countries to operate sanctions against settlers in the West Bank needs to go further. Pressure needs to be applied on Israel to retreat from Lebanon – another occupied territory.

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