The tunnels built by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and several other areas have become a primary focus of Israeli military operations in Lebanon since late 2023, amid intensive efforts to locate and destroy them.
Since then, the Israeli military has repeatedly announced the discovery and destruction of tunnels in various parts of the south, including one in the town of Khiam that it said was located about 25 meters underground and contained command rooms, weapons and underground facilities. The military also announced the discovery in the same town of a tunnel near a church, saying additional entrances were found during the ceasefire period.
In the Qantara area, the Israeli military said it destroyed two tunnels using more than 450 tons of explosives. The tunnels, with a combined length of nearly 2 kilometers, allegedly included dozens of rooms and operational openings, as well as infrastructure allowing long-term underground stays.
These developments underscore the strategic importance tunnels have acquired in the current confrontation, serving as defensive infrastructure, storage facilities and movement corridors for Hezbollah fighters. At the same time, they pose major challenges to any ground military operation because of their concealed and complex nature.
A Secret Everyone Knew!
Abbas, a resident of the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun, said the idea of tunnels “was widely discussed within Hezbollah’s support base,” noting that some young men openly boasted about taking part in excavation work without revealing details about locations or routes.
He added that residents of border villages would occasionally notice young men disappearing, only to later hear they were involved in excavation or underground construction work.
According to Abbas, conversations inside border towns sometimes included references to tunnels extending toward Israeli territory. In October 2024, the Israeli military announced it had found a tunnel extending from the Marwahin area in the Tyre district about 10 meters into Israeli territory near Moshav Zare’et in the western Galilee.
Despite this, Abbas said he never heard excavation sounds, explaining that the work was carried out at great depths and with carefully planned methods that made it extremely difficult for noise to reach the surface.
“A South Beneath the South”
What has gradually emerged since 2023 confirms that extensive and multifunctional military infrastructure had been built beneath several Lebanese regions, especially in the south.
Retired Brig. Gen. Saeed al-Qazah, a strategic expert, said talk of widespread tunnels in the south “is not exaggerated but reflects a reality that has existed for years,” describing what he called “a south beneath the south, consisting of a vast network of tunnels, storage facilities and fortified underground rooms.”
Qazah told Alhurra that these networks were used “to store ammunition, launch rockets, secure command-and-control centers, transport fighters and manage operations away from aerial surveillance and direct targeting.”
He said the number of tunnels “is very large and extends for dozens of kilometers, even if not all are directly interconnected.” Some tunnels, he explained, “serve defensive purposes, providing shelter, withdrawal routes and protection from airstrikes, while others were designed as offensive launch points, with openings allowing fighters to emerge for field operations or to confront any ground advance.”
In this context, Qazah linked some of the infrastructure to the military exercise Hezbollah conducted in May 2023 simulating an incursion into Israeli territory.
These assessments align with findings published by the Israeli-based Alma Research and Education Center, which reported the existence of a tunnel network stretching for dozens of kilometers inside southern Lebanon. According to the institute, the infrastructure was developed with assistance from a North Korean company specializing in such projects, while Hezbollah’s construction arm, Jihad al-Bina, carried out field operations with the help of civilian engineering firms owned by individuals linked to the group. The institute also said Iranians oversaw the project.
How the Terrain Helped
In southern Lebanon, geography became a central part of the underground infrastructure.
Political analyst Dr. Khalid al-Haj said the “rugged mountains, deep valleys, lack of roads across large areas and harsh rocky terrain all provided an ideal environment for building underground networks.”
Speaking to Alhurra, Haj said this strategy gradually took shape after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
According to Haj, some mountainous areas in the south “allow for the excavation of long passageways inside rock formations, providing a high degree of natural protection against airstrikes and direct targeting.”
Excavation operations and the ability to conceal them have long puzzled many military experts. Qazah explained that tunneling operations are carried out either by breaking rock with explosives or by using specialized drilling machines that gradually push soil and rocks backward while advancing underground.
Although such operations can cause vibrations or faint sounds, the parties involved, according to Qazah, “were careful to minimize them to avoid detection or attracting attention in surrounding villages.”
But Haj said the decisive factor behind the construction of tunnels was not merely technical or geographic.
“The Lebanese state, before and after 2000 and even after the 2006 war, treated Hezbollah as a resistance movement,” he said. “That created broad tolerance regarding weapons and military infrastructure in the absence of implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.”
Homes Above Secrets
Hezbollah has repeatedly denied digging tunnels beneath homes and residential buildings in Lebanon. However, Israel has targeted some houses shortly after the Lebanese army withdrew from them, despite inspections carried out at the request of the monitoring mechanism failing to uncover anything.
Retired Brig. Gen. Naji Malaeb, a strategic expert, said, “The entrance to a tunnel may be inside an ordinary house, while the actual structure extends far and deep underground, making it nearly impossible to discover through conventional inspection operations.”
Malaeb told Alhurra that detecting such networks within civilian environments “requires either precise intelligence information or advanced technical means.” He said Israel relies on warplanes to create sonic barriers and then studies and analyzes frequencies and vibrations to detect underground voids.
Qazah, for his part, said disguising tunnel entrances and exits is an essential part of their structure.
“They are often hidden inside homes, civilian facilities or wooded areas in ways that provide no clear indication of military infrastructure beneath them,” he said.
Regional Tunnel Networks?
Tunnel networks are not limited to southern Lebanon, Qazah said, noting that they also extend into areas along the eastern mountain range, where they are used to store weapons and rocket launchers.
In a report published in 2021, the Alma Research and Education Center said Hezbollah’s tunnels are not merely local passageways but rather “an interconnected system” linking Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon as part of a broader logistical and military network.
Qazah also spoke of tunnels and crossings between Lebanon and Syria that allow the movement of trucks and heavy transport vehicles, saying they were used for years to transfer weapons and fighters between Homs, Qusayr and Hermel.
Haj said Israel understands that “a major part of Hezbollah’s ability to withstand attacks is tied to these underground networks, whether those designated for launching rockets or for logistical and military uses.”
But destroying the tunnels, he said, “is not an easy mission.”
“Airstrikes may destroy an entrance, disable a launch opening or block a passage, but they do not necessarily eliminate the main body of the tunnel if it is dug into deep rock layers,” he said, adding that some entrances “can later be reopened or repaired using specialized equipment.”
Developments on the ground suggest that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is no longer confined to the surface, but is also unfolding in a hidden network below it, where tunnels appear to be among the most complex elements of the confrontation.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
