The Lebanese Armed Forces opened one of Hezbollah’s underground tunnels to international journalists on Friday, offering a rare glimpse into the group’s concealed military infrastructure in the country’s volatile south.
The visit, organized by the LAF, appeared aimed at demonstrating both the army’s expanding control in areas long dominated by Hezbollah and the scale of the challenge it faces as tensions with Israel continue to rise.
The tunnel, dug into the hillside of Wadi Zibqin, sits in one of Hezbollah’s most entrenched strongholds just north of the Israeli border. Inside, reporters walked through a narrow passage that led to what resembled a small medical station, a rudimentary kitchen, preserved food supplies, water tanks, electrical wiring, and a ventilation system — evidence of a site designed to sustain fighters for extended periods.
No Hezbollah personnel were present, and the Lebanese military insisted the position had been abandoned.
Brig. Gen. Nicolas Thabet, who oversees army operations south of the Litani River, moved through the tunnel alongside the media delegation.
He framed the visit as part of a broader effort to reassert state authority in an area where Hezbollah’s influence has been largely unchecked for nearly two decades.
“We will not give up our objectives, whatever the difficulties may be,” he told reporters, describing the terrain as “one of the most dangerous areas in the Middle East” and stressing that the army has “sacrificed greatly.”
The location has already proven deadly. In August, six LAF sappers died when an explosion ripped through a nearby weapons depot believed to contain munitions stored by Hezbollah.
The army says it has since taken control of several former positions that were either struck by Israeli fire or abandoned by fighters.
Friday’s tour came at a moment of renewed tension following the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh district earlier in the week. Tabatabai, considered one of Hezbollah’s most experienced field commanders, played a central role in the group’s operations in Syria and Yemen and was a key node in Iran’s regional network.
Speaking after the strike, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem warned that the group retained “the right to respond” and would choose the timing.
He accused the United States and unnamed Arab states of helping orchestrate what he described as a campaign of “infiltrations” targeting Hezbollah.
“The enemy did everything in its power to end the resistance, but it failed,” Qassem said, casting the group once again as the vanguard against what he called “Israeli-American aggression.”
For the LAF, the tunnel tour was as much an act of messaging as it was a display of access.
By showing the site to foreign media, the army signaled that it is trying — despite limited resources and complicated political constraints — to present itself as a stabilizing actor in a landscape now shaped by Israeli precision strikes, Hezbollah’s internal recalculations, and growing uncertainty over how long the current cycle of escalation can be contained.
