The paratroopers' brigade combat team, under the command of Division 98, has been fighting for a month in complex, mountainous terrain, both above and below ground, in southern Lebanon.
During a joint operation with the Yahalam unit and searches conducted underground, the forces located and destroyed, using approximately 400 tons of explosives, an underground strategic military facility that Hezbollah had built over the past 15 years.
The route is over a kilometer and a half long, and equipment used by hundreds of terrorists for extended stays was found there, including food, beds, cabinets, electricity, and numerous weapons - anti-tank missiles, rockets, RPGs, mines, and numerous explosives.
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The activity was carried out together with the 77th Armored Battalion, the 8219th Infantry Regiment, the Yahalam Unit, and the Shin Bet.
During the searches and exploration of the underground headquarters, fighters from the Yahalam unit engaged in battles with the terrorists who had entrenched themselves in it, and the terrorists were eliminated.
""We located a very large underground compound about a kilometer and a half long that was used by Hezbollah and Radwan for fighting and defense," said Major A., a company commander in the Yahalam unit. "This is where the terrorists entrenched themselves. You can see here the position they built and actually fired on our forces. Here we fought a battle with the terrorists until they withdrew.".
""A generator room, tools, diesel fuel, grease, lots and lots of tools," he continues, "this is actually the place that gave them their electricity supply here. You can see another ascent to the shaft. Throughout all of this, you simply encounter piles of ammunition, of combat equipment, grenades, weapons, machine guns. You can see it here.".
""Another kilometer, another kilometer in this configuration," Major A. explains, "exit shafts on one side, you can see that there are complexes, like large sleeping complexes with beds and mattresses, and next to each sleeping complex there is a sink, a kitchen, a toilet and a shower. This is basically how this entire route is built. Each such complex, with mattresses, beds, with ammunition, air conditioners, combat equipment, a full refrigerator. Corn, dates, a whole lot of other things you can see here - weapons, sniper rifles, dozens of rounds of ammunition if not hundreds.".
""Look at what it looks like, a kind of command post - there are cameras all around here," emphasizes Major A., "They were prepared for combat - you can see the amount of weapons.".
""The goal of this underground system, and especially these residence complexes, is essentially for those Hezbollah and Radwan operatives to arrive from the nearby villages and from this village as ordinary citizens on the surface, dressed in civilian clothes, who enter this tunnel, put on combat equipment, vests, light weapons, heavy weapons, machine guns, ammunition, their means, and at the moment of command - launch an attack on the State of Israel.".
""This is a system they've been building for over 15 years," he noted, "and now we're here and we're going to destroy this tunnel.".
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