Despite Iranian threats: IDF announces clearing of Hezbollah underground complex where dozens of terrorists held out

The Israeli military has completed the capture of Hezbollah’s massive underground command complex in the Ali al-Taher Ridge, with the dozens of terrorists who were holed up in the compound for the last months either being killed or having fled, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday.

At the same time, four additional Lebanese detainees were transferred to Lebanon after Israel found they had no direct affiliation with Hezbollah. The first detainee was handed over on Thursday.

The IDF announcement comes after reports that the Iranian regime threatened to attack Israel again if the IDF struck the compound. Israel had said the underground tunnel system served as the main command center for Hezbollah’s “Badr” unit, one of three regional brigades in southern Lebanon. The compound was the last remaining holdout within the Israeli-controlled security zone.

The IDF said troops from the 36th Division “achieved operational control of the ridge area, both above and below ground, and cleared the area of terrorists. Some of the terrorists were eliminated, while others fled the area. The operation to neutralize the underground infrastructure sites that were cleared of terrorists is still ongoing.”

The compound “contained command centers, weapons storage rooms, generator rooms, living quarters, showers, and a kitchen, which enabled the terrorists to manage combat and remain underground for extended periods of time. The infrastructure is a strategic underground network that was built over two decades and funded and planned by the Iranian terror regime.”

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Iranian regime has transmitted the message to Washington that it would attack Israel if it conducted an offensive against the compound, claiming that Iranian officials were among the terrorists trapped there. Three regional officials said Tehran had threatened a large-scale attack in that scenario.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that this would “free [the IDF] from all constraints,” and that the military would “strike all infrastructure – including energy infrastructure – and return Iran to the Stone Age and darkness.”

Two of the officials claimed that over a dozen members of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), including at least two senior officers, were among the Hezbollah operatives trapped in the underground complex. Hezbollah has reportedly launched several unsuccessful efforts to provide the trapped terrorists with food and water.

However, Kan News’ military correspondent Itay Blumental reported on Friday that Israel denied reports that Iranian officers were trapped in the compound, saying the reports may have been part of an Iranian propaganda effort to prevent the compound’s capture by linking the Lebanese and Iranian fronts and increasing pressure on Israel.

Blumental further reported that, once the IDF completes clearing the infrastructure, the ridge area will be handed over to the Lebanese army. The IDF stated that after the operation is completed, it will “adjust its defensive posture in accordance with the situational assessment.”

“IDF soldiers will continue to operate in the Security Zone in southern Lebanon and will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to advance terror attacks against them. Any attempt by the terrorist organization to carry out an attack against IDF soldiers will be met with a response. The IDF remains committed to the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.”

استقبل رئيس الجمهورية العماد جوزاف عون بعد ظهر اليوم في قصر بعبدا، سفير الولايات المتحدة الأميركية في لبنان ميشال عيسى واعضاء من لجنتي الشؤون الخارجية والقوات المسلحة في الكونغرس الاميركي.
وتم خلال اللقاء عرض الأوضاع الراهنة والتطورات الأخيرة لاسيما تحرير دفعة من المحتجزين… pic.twitter.com/4M9Oit7nZ6

— Lebanese Presidency (@LBpresidency) September 4, 2026

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, thanked U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa “for the efforts he exerted to secure the release of a number of Lebanese detainees in Israel.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that it facilitated the return of four more Lebanese citizens detained by Israel, after the first was handed over the day before.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that their release was “part of the negotiations with Lebanon” and came after he ordered that “efforts be advanced to locate and repatriate the bodies of the leaders of the Jewish community in Lebanon, who were abducted and murdered by terrorist organizations in the mid-1980s.”