Israeli army destroys tunnel used to smuggle Iranian weapons to Lebanon

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck a 3.5-kilometer-long underground tunnel on Thursday, which crossed from Lebanon into Syria and was used for smuggling and storing large quantities of weapons.

According to Israeli military command, the tunnel was used by Hezbollah’s 4400 Unit, which is behind the transportation of weaponry from Iran to Hezbollah.

It was the first time the military has announced the destruction of a tunnel between Lebanon and Syria.

Also, the IDF said Friday it had executed a separate overnight airstrike on “infrastructure” at Lebanon’s main border crossing with Syria, after identifying an attempted delivery of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah through the civilian crossing.

Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh, a Hezbollah member, told Reuters the strike had created a 12-foot crater next to the Masnaa Border Crossing, sealing off Lebanon’s main route to Syria.

The Lebanese government said that some 310,000 people mostly Syrians have used the road to flee to Syria in the past ten days, as fighting intensifies between the two nations.

The IDF has said it has stepped up efforts to prevent any weapons being delivered from Iran to Hezbollah via Syria.

On Tuesday, the commander of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 was killed in a strike in Beirut.

Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF Arabic spokesman, on Thursday accused the militant group of using the border crossing to smuggle Iranian arms into Lebanon.

“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so,” he wrote on X.

The border crossing strike came hours after a massive Israeli airstrike on Beirut said to have targeted Hashem Safieddine, the much touted successor to longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah at the terror group’s intelligence headquarters.

Meanwhile, the strikes came as the IDF expanded its ground operation in south Lebanon on Thursday and Hezbollah fired over 240 rockets into Northern Israel, Times of Israel reported.

The past two weeks have seen the Jewish nation step up its strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, all but decimating the terror group’s top command in a series of massive airstrikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon.

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