Boxing
The operation to catch the ridge at the edge of the IDF’s zone in southern Lebanon lasted months, as lots of terrorists, approximated to number around 50, were established inside the tunnel up until the IDF took control on September 3.
M saw the defeat of Hezbollah at Ali Taher by his forces and IDF Division 36 more usually as a significant problem to the terrorist group and to Iran “both on a symbolic and command-and-control functional level.”
The damage of the 14 tunnel paths on the ridge– extending about 5.4 k.m. in overall and developed with Iranian aid over 20 years– by utilizing an incredible 1,100 pounds of dynamites, was provided the IDF codename “Chisel of Flames.”
The difficulties were complex, M informed the Post
IDF soldiers run in the location of Lebanon’s IDF Ali Taher Ridge in a video launched on September 16, 2026. (courtesy: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)How did an elite IDF system win the fight of Ali Taher Ridge?
The climb of the 600-meter-high ridge was exceptionally tough and consisted of really couple of courses, he stated. This made it simpler for Hezbollah to booby-trap gain access to paths to its underground burrow.
Next, the volume of explosive drones that were sent out to assault the Egoz unique forces was extraordinary, M stated.
“The ridge and burrow were completely Iranian, with Hezbollah forces, among the biggest underground complexes in Lebanon,” with command-and-control authority over the whole Nabatiya location, he stated.
“From the Ali Taher Ridge command center, Hezbollah handled all of its long- and short-range firepower southern Lebanon attacks on the IDF along with on Israeli civilians in northern Israel,” he included. “Hezbollah felt extremely safe here and believed they were immune” to attack.
M stated his Egoz task forces “went in difficult and quickly, at first with little groups of forces to surround and cut off the location. We sent out little penetrating forces into the extremely intricate underground head office from which there were lots of terrorists, rockets, and drone dangers frequently.”
Next, to prevent the myriad booby-traps that Hezbollah set for them, his unique forces needed to utilize a range of sophisticated innovations and super-honed field abilities, such as having the ability to virtually see and smell traps and drones minutes before they would strike, M stated.
It assisted that the Egoz unique forces had actually attained total surprise versus the Hezbollah forces at Ali Taher by utilizing different methods to sidetrack them from the task forces’ method till it was far too late, he stated.
This implied that when the Hezbollah operatives began utilizing more drones and firepower, they did not understand where to direct their fire, he included.
Commandos saw ‘worry and surprise in the opponent’s eyes’
In numerous circumstances, the gunfights remained in such distance that his task forces “saw the worry and surprise in the opponent’s eyes up close,” M stated.
Regardless of the surprise, he credited the Hezbollah fighters in the complex with “resisting more increasingly than in any other fight in Lebanon,” they knew how important the battle was.”
Capt. “D” of the Combat Engineering Corps’ Yahalom special unit told the Post the areas near Hezbollah’s lair and inside were covered in surveillance cameras and a variety of short- and long-range improvised explosives so that anyone entering might think they were safe after getting past one explosive, only to fall victim to the next one.
He said his Yahalom special forces had used a wide range of techniques to analyze all the different pieces of the Ali Taher Ridge tunnel network until they could break it down into exactly which sections they wanted to take over and which sections they could just blow up with dynamite and cut off.
To accomplish this, they brought in senior experts from all over the IDF to arrive at the best and most creative plan, he added.
There were literally dozens of times during the battle for Ali Taher when he could have been killed if something had gone slightly differently, D said.
For example, when he was centimeters away from stepping on a well-camouflaged mine, he had a sixth-sense feeling that something was suspicious about the topography and stepped back from what would have been a fatal move forward, he said.
In another incident, a drone struck the vehicle he had been traveling in only moments after he exited, destroying the vehicle but leaving him unharmed, he added.
Both M and D said the large boulders that were part of the topography were a special challenge, but Egoz and Yahalom rose to the challenge to clear the way for additional forces and for blowing up the entire complex.
Furthermore, both M and D talked about Iran’s heavy contributions to the technological and tactical construction of the complex, making it unique in southern Lebanon.
D described a creative process for rapidly moving explosives from nearby trucks deep into the Hezbollah headquarters – both for efficiency and so that the terrorists could not intervene.
Questioned about the difficulties of the Israeli security cabinet and the Trump administration at one point ordering a pause from operations against Hezbollah at Ali Taher so as not to undermine the broader ceasefire with Iran, M said the IDF and political echelon had been fully coordinated at all times.
“Wherever and whenever an area was defined as a battle space, we did everything to arrive at the desired outcome,” he said.
Until the IDF destroyed the complex, it had served as the “nerve center” for the Badr Unit, and Hezbollah had no infrastructure of a similar scale north of it until reaching Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood.
The operation began with the crossing of the Litani River and an attempt to surprise Hezbollah, the IDF reported.
The IDF carried out deception operations designed to make Hezbollah believe soldiers were preparing to cross in another area, but at the same time, it was opening a hidden bypass route over several days.
While most Hezbollah fighters were killed, some did manage to escape given the large number of tunnel shafts connected to the network.
Aspects of the operation were also conducted gradually, so there was no dramatic single moment until it was too late to lure Iran into complacency when Hezbollah started to desperately call for help.
“After what we did to them here, they understand we can get to them anywhere,” M said.
Discover more from PMN S.P.O.R.T.S - A PRIME MEDIA NETWORK BRAND
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
