For the last month, IDF paratroopers, under the command of the 98th division, have been fighting in mountainous terrain in southern Lebanon.
During a joint operation with the elite Yahalom unit, using 400 tons of explosives, IDF fighters located and destroyed an underground strategic military installation built by Hezbollah over the past 15 years.
The length of the route is over a kilometer and a half, and it contained equipment that was used by hundreds of terrorists for an extended stay, including food, beds, closets, electricity and many weapons - anti-tank missiles, rockets, RPGs, mines and many charges.
The activity was carried out together with the 77th Armored Battalion, 8219, Yahalom and the Shin Bet.
While investigating this underground headquarters, Yahalom fighters fought with terrorists who had barricaded themselves in it and the terrorists were eliminated.
"We located a very large underground compound about a kilometer and a half that was used by Hezbollah and Radwan for fighting and defense," said a company commander in the Yahalom unit, Major A. "We fought with the terrorists until they retreated. [Here's what we found:] A generator room, tools, diesel fuel, grease, lots and lots of tools. This is actually the place that gave them electricity supply here. Another ascent to the shaft can be seen. [We came] across piles of ammunition, combat equipment, grenades, weapons, machine guns."
Major A explains, "There are compounds, like large sleeping compounds with beds and mattresses, and adjacent to each sleeping compound there is a sink and a kitchen and a toilet and a shower. That's how this whole route is actually built. The compound is equipped with mattresses, beds, air conditioners, combat equipment, a full refrigerator, corn and dates, an anti-tank rifle, a sniper rifle, a large amount of ammunition.
The purpose of this underground system, and especially of these residence complexes, is actually for Hezbollah and Radwan operatives to come from the nearby villages and from this village, dressed in civilian clothes. They would then enter this tunnel, get dressed in combat equipment, vests, light weapons, heavy weapons, machine guns, ammunition and launch an attack on the State of Israel when they were ordered to."