A video released by Hezbollah late last week is causing consternation among Israeli defense analysts

DOWN TO EARTH: Israelis were sobered by a first glimpse of Hezbollah's extensive tunnel network

Whether it was intended as deterrence against an IDF attack or just as psyops, a video released by Hezbollah late last week is causing consternation among Israeli defense analysts.

The video, about four and a half minutes long, purports to offer a glimpse into the massive underground terror complex that Hezbollah has constructed beneath Lebanon. The clip depicts tunnels ranging in width between three and ten meters, with a clearance of four meters, capacious enough to accommodate trucks in two directions. The installation, called “Imad-4,” is between five and 25 meters underground and outfitted with electricity, lighting, air conditioning, and air filtration systems.

The footage begins with a close-up of an armed terrorist on a motorcycle inside a tunnel, opening a reinforced electric door opening into an expansive network. Trucks laden with missiles, drones, and other weapons drive through the tunnels. In other parts of the facility, Hezbollah terrorists are seen sitting in front of computer screens and other sophisticated intelligence equipment. At the end of the clip, rocket launchers emerge from various openings above ground.

The release of the Hezbollah video sparked outrage in Lebanon.

“If Hezbollah is able to build these tunnels, why can’t it provide electricity and water to its neighbors?” posted one angry civilian.

Samir Geagea, chairman of the Lebanese Forces Party, pointed out that the complex was built with Iranian funding, against Lebanese interests. “Hezbollah cannot determine the fate of Lebanon through war,” he warned.

Although many in Israel also found the video disturbing, almost no one found it surprising.

Already during Israel’s First Lebanon War in the 1980s, Hezbollah had begun digging massive tunnels, under the guidance of experts from North Korea and funded by Iran. An investigation by the French Libération newspaper found that the actual digging of the tunnels was carried out by an arm of Hezbollah called “the Construction Jihad.”

Hezbollah’s first tunnels were much smaller, built to carry out terror activity in the villages of southern Lebanon. Over the years, they expanded into a national network. Following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah made the tunnels its flagship project. Digging at a rate of 15 meters a day using only manual tools, the Construction Jihad excavated hundreds of kilometers of tunnels leading to almost any point in Lebanon, from the Shebaa Farms in the south, past the Litani River, branching out to Beirut and the infamous Dahiya neighborhood up to Baalbec deep in the country, with some crossing into Syria, Jordan, and even Israel. One study using only open sources discovered a tunnel 45 kilometers long.

The tunnels serve a wide range of activities, from weapons storage out of the sight of Israeli intelligence, to attack tunnels that apparently cross into Israel. In Beirut they offer safe refuge for Nasrallah and senior terrorist operatives, while along the borders between Lebanon and Syria and Jordan, they facilitate weapons smuggling. Israeli intelligence estimates that there are more than 300 kilometers of terror tunnels in Southern Lebanon alone.

After Hezbollah accrued enough tunneling experience, it initiated independent mining operations under the guise of civilian construction companies. One of these, Mustafa Commercial and Contracting, even appears in United Nations development records as a contractor for civilian projects.

IN December 2018, the IDF began Operation Northern Shield to neutralize tunnels penetrating from Lebanon into Israel. For five weeks, the Engineering Corps, guided by the Military Intelligence Department, located and neutralized six attack tunnels.

Gadi Eisenkot, then IDF chief of staff, reported that Hezbollah planned to move 5,000 armed terrorists through the tunnels to raid a frontline border town. It seemed then like a farfetched scenario; last October, it became a waking nightmare in Gaza.

The first tunnel found in Operation Northern Shield had its entrance inside a private home in Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon; the other end was located within the boundaries of Metula, Israel. The IDF believes Hezbollah’s Radwan forces planned to take control of the access road to Metula and isolate it completely.

Other tunnels that were found including one that began in the Lebanese village of Ramyah and exited in the Israeli yishuv of Zar’it, and another that crossed toward Shtula.

“The Iranians provided ample funds to Hezbollah for the tunnel project,” said Lieutenant Colonel T., the commander of the intelligence team that worked to expose the tunnels, in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. “We took these tunnels, but it’s safe to assume that Hezbollah did not abandon its plans to assault and occupy the Galilee, and its Radwan forces are still training to do that.”

Indeed, since the beginning of the war in Gaza on October 7, Hezbollah has been taking advantage of Israel’s maneuvers to learn and prepare. What began as small-scale rocket fire has become a real shooting war. First, Hezbollah terrorists destroyed the lookout posts along the border fence.

Then they began to target IDF bases and outposts near the border, with precision fire directed at the radar and advanced detection systems. The Tal Shamayim system was damaged about four months ago, as was the massive radar system at the Air Control Unit base on Har Meron, which is supposed to underpin Israeli aerial superiority from the center of the country to the northern borders and beyond.

Hezbollah then began to launch unmanned drones, to attack and gather intelligence. In at least three cases, Hezbollah was able to fly an advanced photography drones over dozens of strategic military and civilian sites, such as secret bases, the Haifa Bay, the Haifa Port, and others.

Hezbollah is also monitoring Israel’s tactics against tunnels in Gaza to learn more about defending its own. Every tunnel that is located and destroyed by Israel is studied carefully by the Shiite terrorist group and the conclusions are implemented immediately.

Israel is not resting on its laurels, and according to foreign sources, Israel dropped white phosphorous bombs in southern Lebanon after October 7 to burn off foliage in the mountains and forested regions, to expose tunnel openings. That action uncovered 12 more such openings, which were then destroyed. An Israeli military source told the French paper Libération that the IDF is using motion sensors, fiber optics connected to the G4 network, robots, drones, and information sources to map out the tunnel network.

Senior Northern Command officials I spoke to this week declare confidently that the IDF has a “sufficient” intelligence picture regarding the scope of the tunnels, their location and their routes, “at least in southern Lebanon and in areas that pose a direct threat to Israel.”

Given that this same IDF declared over and over again after Operation Northern Shield that there were no more tunnels crossing into Israel, despite repeated warnings by frontline residents that they could hear digging under their homes, these declarations should be taken with a healthy dose of salt.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1025)