At the end of September, the IDF began limited ground raids with special forces to prepare for a larger ground incursion aimed at dismantling Hezbollah's terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Within a few days, that raid transformed into a limited ground operation aimed at clearing out Hezbollah sites used to target or threaten Israeli communities across the Blue Line.
As part of the operations led by the IDF Northern Command, the forces operated against Hezbollah in more than 30 areas across southern Lebanon. The troops identified and destroyed terror infrastructure, eliminated terrorists, and located and confiscated numerous weapons.
The Israeli military confiscated such a large amount of weapons and military equipment that it even considered forming a new unit using only the captured equipment.
In its operations in Lebanon, the IDF confiscated over 85,000 weapons, missiles and military items, including rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, RPGs, rifles, explosives, munitions, anti-aircraft missiles, observation devices, and military vehicles. A large exhibition of weapons that were confiscated was put on display for the media and interested Israelis.
Most of the confiscated weapons were intended to be used by Hezbollah to launch attacks against Israeli civilians as part of the terror group's 'Conquer the Galilee' invasion plan. Following the seizure of the equipment, the IDF said Hezbollah's military capabilities were "significantly degraded."
On Wednesday evening, almost a month after the ceasefire began, the IDF revealed part of the enormous cache of seized equipment for the first time. Most of the arsenal had been in the possession of Hezbollah's Radwan forces, which planned to invade Israel in a similar way but on a much larger scale than the Oct. 7 massacre.
The more than 85,000 confiscated weapons are just a portion of what has been discovered, the IDF noted. Tens of thousands of additional weapons were destroyed in Lebanon due to the heavy nature of the equipment.
Among the items displayed at the exhibition were: anti-aircraft guns mounted on jeeps, hundreds of advanced anti-tank missiles, various types of Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns, including heavy ones, mortar shells, sniper rifles, various types of explosive devices, and crates of ammunition on the scale of a small and advanced army.
Among the military equipment showcased in the exhibition were chemical warfare masks intended for Radwan operatives to use in fighting in gas and smoke conditions, as well as GoPro cameras designed to document its planned invasion of the Galilee, much as the Hamas terror group did in the Oct. 7 invasion.
According to the IDF, the breakdown of captured weapons was approximately 6,840 RPG launchers and rockets, as well as anti-tank missiles of different models; about 20 military vehicles; approximately 9,000 explosive devices and weapons; around 60,800 pieces of electronic equipment, communication devices, computers, and documents; about 2,250 shells and "surface-to-surface" missiles; approximately 2,700 light weapons; about 2,860 additional pieces of weaponry; around 60 anti-aircraft missiles; and about 300 observation devices and binoculars.
The IDF said that ground forces operated in approximately 30 Shiite villages along the 130-km-long (81-mile) border, which stretches from Ras al-Naqura to Mount Dov. However, Hezbollah still possesses thousands of various types of weapons, including some heavy rockets, precise missiles, and UAVs, located north of the Litani River, even though some of that arsenal was destroyed by the IDF in Operation "Northern Swords."
The remaining IDF units in southern Lebanon continue to target Hezbollah operatives who violate the ceasefire agreement. In the past month, the troops have eliminated over 40 terrorists, in addition to around 3,000 militants killed in the past year and about 7,000 wounded, out of approximately 30,000 military operatives.
As the Lebanese Armed Forces have begun to enter the border area, the IDF has withdrawn some of its troops back to Israel. In the meantime, engineering operations to destroy Hezbollah's internal bunkers and combat tunnels continue.
The IDF also clarified that the 60-day deadline for the ceasefire is not a "sacred date" and the phases of the agreement will be implemented gradually under an "American umbrella."
The military emphasized that the safe return of Israeli civilians to evacuated towns in the north is part of the ceasefire agreement and that it will not bring them back until the border region is safe.
Republished with permission from All Israel News