by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief
(Worthy News) – The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it had completed clearing a strategic Hezbollah underground facility beneath the Ali Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon and was preparing the tunnel complex for demolition.
According to the IDF, Israeli troops entered the mountainous area in recent weeks and worked through Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure, which the military said had been used by the terror group as part of its entrenched presence near the Israeli border.
The Ali Taher Ridge has emerged as one of the most sensitive flashpoints in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, with Israeli officials viewing the site as a key Hezbollah position overlooking parts of northern Israel. Reuters reported that the ridge is considered strategically significant because of its elevation and suspected underground command and weapons facilities.
The operation comes amid heightened regional tensions, with Iran reportedly warning the United States against a major Israeli assault on the ridge, where Tehran and Hezbollah view the position as a critical front in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s Islamic Ideology and Lebanon’s Fractured Landscape
Hezbollah was born in the chaos of Lebanon’s civil war and Israel’s 1982 invasion, when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps began training and funding Shiite militants in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. The group cast itself as an Islamic “resistance” movement, but its 1985 manifesto also pledged loyalty to Iran’s supreme leader, called for Western powers to leave Lebanon, and sought Israel’s destruction.
At the heart of Hezbollah’s worldview is the Iranian doctrine of velayat-e faqih — the rule, or guardianship, of the Islamic jurist — which places ultimate religious and political authority in the hands of Iran’s supreme leader. That doctrine has made Hezbollah more than a Lebanese militia; it has functioned as the most powerful armed extension of Iran’s revolutionary project on Israel’s northern border.
After Lebanon’s civil war ended under the 1989 Taif Agreement, most militias were expected to disarm. Hezbollah, however, retained its weapons by presenting itself as a “resistance” force against Israel. Over the decades that followed, it entrenched itself militarily in southern Lebanon while also embedding itself politically in Beirut, creating a state-within-a-state that no Lebanese government has fully controlled.
Lebanon itself remains deeply divided by sect, ideology, and foreign alignment. Its political system divides power among religious communities, with the presidency reserved for a Maronite Christian, the premiership for a Sunni Muslim, and the speakership of parliament for a Shiite Muslim. The Taif Agreement adjusted the balance of power after the civil war but left the country’s sectarian structure in place.
In modern Lebanese politics, Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal movement have generally stood within the pro-Iran, pro-Syria camp, historically linked to the March 8 coalition. Opposing them have been anti-Syrian and more Western- or Gulf-aligned factions, including Sunni, Christian, and independent blocs. That division has repeatedly paralyzed Lebanon’s government and deepened national disputes over whether Hezbollah’s arms defend Lebanon or endanger it.
For Israel, the Ali Taher Ridge is not merely another battlefield position. It represents the deeper war over whether Hezbollah will be allowed to remain dug into southern Lebanon, watching Israel from the high ground and waiting for the next opening.
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