A satellite image shows damage at the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatiah, Lebanon, March 8, 2026. © 2026 Planet Labs PBC via Reuters
Israel has seized the strategically placed Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon from Hezbollah fighters, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Friday. The Iran-aligned Shiite group did not confirm losing the highland, which sits around 10 kilometres from the border with Israel and was pummelled by Israeli strikes in recent weeks despite a ceasefire.
Israeli troops have driven Hezbollah fighters from tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday. The Iran-aligned Shiite group did not immediately comment.
Israel had said Hezbollah fighters were embedded in tunnels under the ridge, which overlooks a wide area and had become one of the most hotly contested areas in the Israel-Hezbollah war, despite a ceasefire announced in June.
“The mission was completed and the tunnels were cleared of terrorists,” Katz said on social media, after a statement by the military late on Thursday saying it had operational control of the ridge.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Iran had warned the United States last month that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli assault on its Hezbollah allies’ positions within the ridge. For its part, the Shiite Muslim group had said it would resist any Israeli assault.
The Israeli military said some Hezbollah fighters had been “eliminated”, while others had fled.
Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters was not able to independently verify the status of the ridge.
The ridge, a flashpoint since Tehran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March following the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lies close to the major city of Nabatieh and the Litani river.
It is just a few kilometres from UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle, another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months.
The Israeli military on Thursday said that the tunnel network included “command centres (and) weapons storage rooms”.
“The infrastructure is a strategic underground network that was built over two decades and funded and planned by the Iranian terror regime,” it added.
Kahwaji, who heads the INEGMA military analysis institute, said the hilltops overlook Iqlim al-Tuffah, an area further from the border where Hezbollah holds sway, as well as part of the country’s east.
Control of the area would therefore “give the Israelis an easy passage to move on both sides”.
Speaking to journalists including AFP last month, Hezbollah spokesman Youssef al-Zein refused to say how many of the group’s fighters were at the Ali al-Taher position. He denied any Iranian personnel were there, as had been reported in some media outlets.
He said that Israel had “exaggerated the importance of Ali al-Taher” as a military objective but also vowed that Hezbollah would “defend this position as much as it can”.
The ridge is located right above the Litani. Hezbollah agreed to disarm in areas south of the river under a 2024 ceasefire that sought to end its previous war with Israel.
Israel has expanded its military occupation over swathes of southern Lebanon since launching a new campaign against Hezbollah in March.
In June, Israel’s army published an updated map showing the parts of southern Lebanon it considers within what it calls its “security zone” where its troops are operating, expanding the area to include the Ali al-Taher ridge.
It is not the end of the road for Hezbollah
Hezbollah MP Ihab Hamadeh
Hezbollah MP Ihab Hamade commented on Israel seizure of Ali al taker by saying: I”t is neither a military disaster nor the end of the road for Hezbollah”
he added: “There remains ambiguity regarding the reality of Israel’s alleged seizure of Ali al-Taher Ridge ”
He questioned how the Israeli enemy could claim control over the hill while continuously shelling and launching raids against it—despite effectively controlling it from the air or geographically encircling it from all sides—without its forces actually managing to enter the facility or establish boots-on-the-ground control.
Speaking on Sputnik Radio station , he noted that Israel has not released images confirming its seizure of Ali al-Taher or the logistical weaponry it claimed to have captured, even while alleging that it killed large numbers of fighters and caused others to flee. He asked, “How could that happen while they maintain such a tight grip from the air and on the ground?”
Hamadeh argued that Israel is attempting to portray Ali al-Taher Hill as Hezbollah’s “last stronghold” so that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can leverage the narrative in the Israeli elections; however, he emphasized that the hill—like any other site or elevation in southern Lebanon—holds sacred, existential value.
He stressed that Israeli control of the ridge constitutes neither a military disaster nor the end of the road, particularly given the legendary resistance mounted at Ali al-Taher. He added, however, that there are now “red lines” regarding the monitoring of Israel’s next moves.
He blamed “the framework agreement that was signed by the Leb anise government for the seizure of the Ridge
The question on the mind of the Lebanese and specially the Shiite community is : When will Iran ask Hezbollah to hand over its arms to the Lebanese Army, Ali Hussein a Lebanese political analysts was quoted as saying adding , “with a protector like Hezbollah , the Shiite community needs no enemies “. The Shiite community in Lebanon suffered the most from Hezbollah’s wars with Israel . in every one of these wars the homes of the Shiite community were destroyed and hundreds of thousands were displaced and thousands died. Add to that the fact that the tiny Lebanon lost territories to Israel in every one of the 3 wars that Hezbollah initiated against Israel in 2006, 2023 and 2026.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
