Lebanese Army conducts excavations in Touline after Israeli report

SOUTH LEBANON — The Lebanese Army carried out excavation operations Wednesday afternoon in the valley of Touline, in the Marjayoun district, following an Israeli report passed through the cease-fire monitoring committee (the 'Mechanism').

The report indicated the presumed presence of a tunnel or Hezbollah military facility, according to our correspondent in South Lebanon. The operation reportedly led to the discovery of a small underground room, but no weapons, ammunition or military equipment were found.

The army was set to meet Wednesday evening with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to present the excavation results.

A source from the Touline municipality stated that “the army has four days to determine whether there is a military site,” without ruling out “continued search efforts.”

Dig deeper

How far will pressure on the Lebanese Army go?

This was not the first such intervention. On Sunday, a similar inspection took place in Yanouh, in the Sour district, inside a building.

Again, no weapons or ammunition were found. Last November, Israel had urged the Lebanese Army to speed up Hezbollah's disarmament in South Lebanon, particularly through searches in private properties, according to Reuters citing Lebanese and Israeli officials. The request was rejected by the Lebanese military command, which feared civil unrest.

“If U.S. restrictions were recently imposed on Israeli strikes in Syria, those do not apply to Lebanon,” where the Israeli military still occupies five positions in the south, violating the truce agreed in November 2024, and where Israeli strikes continue almost daily, a French diplomatic source told the Saudi channel al-Hadath.

UNIFIL withdrawal 'should not create a security vacuum in South Lebanon'

The same source estimated that Hezbollah “will seek to rearm,” warning that the presence of Hezbollah 's weapons north of the Litani River “would bring complications greater than those seen in the south.”

Despite the Aug. 5 Cabinet decision to restore the state’s monopoly on arms, Hezbollah refuses to surrender its arsenal nationwide, although it says it is ready to cooperate in the area south of the Litani.

Tasked in September with defining and implementing a disarmament plan, the army claims to have completed most of the first phase of operations south of the river, efforts that are expected to continue at least until the end of the year.

The same diplomatic source added that France is working to ensure that the Lebanese army “does what it says” in terms of disarmament, noting that Paris has suggested a UNIFIL force accompany the Lebanese Army in the disarmament process of Hezbollah.

While U.N. peacekeepers, deployed in the south since 1978, are set to begin withdrawing on Dec. 31, 2026, aiming for a full exit by the end of 2027, the diplomatic source stated that this withdrawal “should not create a security vacuum in the south of the country.”

Finally, they said Lebanon must present a narrative different from the “erroneous Israeli version” alleging no progress has been made on Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Meanwhile, on the ground Wednesday, the Israeli army carried out further attacks: around 11 a.m., an Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb off the coast near Ras Naqoura, in the Sour district.

A similar operation was carried out in the afternoon over Taybeh, in the Marjayoun district. Another Israeli drone struck between Aazieh and Shakhroub, near Kfar Kila, still in the same district. Late Tuesday night, Israeli artillery targeted the al-Marj neighborhood, on the outskirts of the locality of Houla (Marjayoun).

The Israeli army also claimed to have killed a Hezbollah member on Tuesday who was “gathering intelligence” during a strike in the Taybeh region.

“This terrorist was collecting intelligence on Israeli forces in South Lebanon and was working to reestablish Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure,” said Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman, on X.

The victim, Hussein Hassan Yehya, also known as “Ali Mourtada,” was killed in a drone raid between the villages of Markaba and Adaisseh, near Taybeh. Hezbollah confirmed the death of its member, who was from Taybeh.