How 70 Operations Were Carried Out Under Hezbollah’s Nose

On December 1, 2023, a small, secret team convened in a closed room deep within the corridors of the Northern Command base. On one of the walls, a large map of the northern sector was spread out, marked with about 40 carefully selected points—each just a few kilometers across the Israeli border, inside Lebanon.

Within days, they would carry out the first of dozens of operations across the border. The mission: to collect intelligence on Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure and prevent the terrorist organization from strengthening its presence in the area.

“It’s a heavy responsibility,” explains Col. Y., commander of the IDF’s Special Operations Unit. “It’s something on an entirely different scale. The first entry is the most challenging, even though it doesn’t achieve the objective on its own. Seventy operations—that’s a different story. You have to take a deep breath and dive in.”

The First Operations — Learning the Enemy

The location was selected: a suspicious site west of one of the Galilee kibbutzim. The force set out. A trained team of reserve fighters crossed into Lebanon—for the first time in many years.

“At first, we advanced slowly and covertly,” one of the fighters recalls. “We didn’t know what awaited us there—whether we would encounter the enemy, or whether we would be exposed and ambushed from behind.”

The plunge into the unknown proved worthwhile. The team located a significant weapons cache and an observation post equipped with cameras aimed into Israeli territory. “That gave us the push we needed to keep going,” he says. “We had found a thread, and we knew we now had to keep unraveling the terror network.”

In the first month alone, about ten operations were completed—and each one with its own findings: weapons caches, intelligence materials, and technological equipment. “Every time the forces returned,” recalled the commander overseeing the operations, “the picture became clearer and clearer. On January 1, we met again and refined the objective: to clear the northern line of Israeli communities of Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure.”

All identified sites were either seized and destroyed or covertly marked—but only after critical intelligence had been extracted. “I can’t go into details,” stresses Col. Y., “but let’s just say we found things we’ve been searching for for years.”

One target led to another, and the operations gradually pushed deeper into Lebanese territory. Staging areas were uncovered amid rugged terrain and steep hills. By April, dozens of significant missions had already been carried out, some of them lasting several days and involving complex planning and execution.

With each operation, the forces gained a deeper understanding of the enemy’s methods. “We discovered that much of the infrastructure is carefully concealed. Hezbollah terrorists create narrow, hidden passageways—corridors cut through dense vegetation. Once one is found, it often leads to an entire network, and following these access points requires readiness for whatever lies beyond.”

Transporting the findings back to Israel was no simple task. A small, specialized force can move undetected and remain well camouflaged, but its carrying capacity is limited. “We brought back samples from every site and every type of weapon,” he says. “We studied them in depth, which allowed us to better understand the organization—what weapons it uses and under what circumstances.” Equipment that was neither destroyed nor removed to Israeli territory was systematically cleared as ground operations expanded.

From the Map To the Action Plan To the Operation

As noted, no operation can begin without meticulous advance planning—planning that takes in the big picture while also drilling down into the smallest details. But when faced with a map dense with contour lines, mountain peaks, and populated or active areas, how do you identify the exact point that fits the mission?

“Sometimes it feels like an almost impossible decision,” one officer explains, “but when you break the picture down into its components, it gradually becomes clearer.”

Along the way, there are countless dilemmas that shape the final choice. Is the moon full tonight? Has enemy activity been observed near the site recently? What is the condition of the terrain? How dense is the vegetation in the area?

Ultimately, when all the variables are weighed together, they converge on a single question: can an operation be built from this? If the answer is yes, the next step is to ensure that reality on the ground matches the plan drawn up in advance.

“We check whether it’s possible to cross the fence at the designated point. If we arrive and suddenly encounter additional layers of wire or a minefield, for example, we have to be prepared for that ahead of time.”

Once that verification is complete, training begins. “We moved quickly,” says Col. Y. “Within a week of selecting a target, the force was already on the move. Each mission had its own dedicated models, the teams conducted rehearsals, a final operational briefing was carried out—and then we went in.”

“As we carried out missions and mapped the area in detail, we were able to identify additional strategic targets,” he continues. “Not only did the forces in the field become more skilled from one operation to the next, but we at the command level also gained confirmation that our decisions were sound.”

From Tactics To Strategy 

“In April, our activity became strategic,” says Col. Y. “A single operation has no real lateral effect. But four operations carried out in the area of the same community, for example, create a tactical impact on that area—in this case, the community itself.”

“After dozens of operations, the accumulated knowledge crystallized into an overall understanding of the campaign,” he continues. “As a result, we expanded the activity to the Ramim Ridge—a built-up area without dense vegetation—and additional forces, including Egoz and other patrol units, were brought in.”

In a series of complex, covert, and highly focused operations like these, the transfer of knowledge between units is critical. “At the end of every mission, we conducted a debriefing, and its conclusions were shared with the other forces. Any tactical insight—even one that seems minor—helps the soldiers on the front lines operate with greater precision, sharpness, and effectiveness.”

Curtain Lift and Ground Entry

Spot by spot, point by point, for months, the fighters crossed the border into Lebanon—without anyone knowing. “At our peak, we carried out four operations in a single night. There is no other operation of this magnitude,” Col. Y. recalls. 

On the morning of October 1, the IDF openly launched a targeted ground operation against Hezbollah positions near the border. By that time, more than 70 covert operations had already been carried out across the sector. Dozens of weapons depots had been destroyed, and nearly 20 tons of weapons and explosives confiscated. The deep familiarity with the border area allowed the command to refine its defense concepts and approach the operation fully prepared.

The scale changed: small teams gave way to larger brigades, already briefed on what awaited on the other side. “We had marked infrastructure in advance that we knew would require a massive effort to neutralize. There’s a 20-meter tunnel here, another hundred meters there, and two shaft openings to the south—they knew what to prepare for.”

“I’m a resident of the north myself,” says Colonel Y. “So it’s personally important to me that the border be as free of threats as possible.”

Who knows what other secrets are held within the Northern Command’s underground facilities? And which daring operations we’ll only hear about years from now.