Israel claims control of Lebanon’s key Ali al-Taher ridge: What that means

After an extended operation against positions of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, israel this week has asserted to have established operational control over the strategically vital Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon.

Key points

• Since October 2023, israel and Hezbollah have been fighting, with varying levels of intensity.
• "From an Israeli perspective, it is a way to put pressure on the Lebanese government: Tackle Hezbollah head-on, or we stay here."
• With Netanyahu predicted to struggle in October's elections, what happens in southern Lebanon may prove crucial.
• "The capture of Ali Taher is an important step towards achieving this goal."
• Analysts additionally suggested that a lack of a response from Tehran may frustrate Netanyahu.

In an official note on Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz asserted Israeli forces had driven Hezbollah fighters out of what he stated was a network of tunnels ⁠⁠under the contested highland, 15km (10 miles) from the border.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu and I are leading a clear and uncompromising policy, reinforced every day by the: Israel will not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed throughout Lebanon and the threats to the residents of the Galilee are removed, " he was quoted as saying by Israeli media. "The capture of Ali Taher is an important step towards achieving this goal."

Iran-backed Hezbollah has yet to formally comment on the Israeli claims. Nevertheless, hours before Katz's comments, Reuters news agency noted that Iran had cautioned the United States last month that it would respond forcefully if Israeli attacks on the ridge. It rises 600 metres above sea level (1, 970 feet), continued.

Since October 2023, israel and Hezbollah have been fighting, with varying levels of intensity. After the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, israel has twice escalated the conflict – first in September 2024 and then in March this year.

Israel has been working to embed its occupation of southern Lebanon since the latest escalation, when it confirmed the creation of a "security" or "buffer" zone. It rights groups say has involved the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure – potentially a war crime – and is responsible for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese.

After Israel gained control of nearby Beaufort Castle and part of the higher ground overlooking much of southern Lebanon and northern Israel, israeli strikes and ground operations around the Ali al-Taher ridge continued despite a ceasefire agreed in June.

According to Mohanad Hage Ali, of the Carnegie Middle East Centre, Israel's success has partly been down to technological superiority but additionally due to the complete absence of "inhibition" in their assaults upon Lebanese towns and villages. It have often accrued daily casualty rates of dozens of residents.

"There aren't any consequences to their actions, " he remarked. "They can demolish entire villages and wipe out whole societies in a way they could never do before. It's ethnic cleansing."

Pitched as a measure to protect citizens of northern Israel. This person israeli analysts such as Ori Goldberg described as being owed an electoral debt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of crucial elections afterwards this year, the occupation is additionally a means of exerting extra pressure on the administration in Beirut.

"The Israeli 'operational control' over the ridge is no doubt a tactical, even strategic, gain, enabling Israel a better control over southern Lebanon, " remarked Ahron Bregman, an Israeli security analyst and senior teaching fellow at King's College London. "From an Israeli perspective, it is a way to put pressure on the Lebanese government: Tackle Hezbollah head-on, or we stay here."

Nicholas Blanford, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an authority on the group, remarked Hezbollah's lack of comment on the Israeli claims raised a number of questions.

"It could be that a deal's been done. It could be that Israel is exaggerating what it means by 'operational control', " he remarked, noting that neither the extent of Israel's military control over the ridge, nor the infrastructure contained within it, is known.

"What we do know is that Hezbollah appears ready to get back into the resistance business, but no longer seems to be making the decisions, " he remarked. "Those are coming from Iran, who appear to want to keep things quiet for now."

Analysts additionally suggested that a lack of a response from Tehran may frustrate Netanyahu. This person has invested much of his electoral stock in finishing the war with Iran, an opponent he has characterised as posing an existential threat to the country since at least the early 1990s.

Katz has described an attack against Israel as freeing its military "from all constraints", and that in such a scenario, the military would "strike all infrastructure – including energy infrastructure – and return Iran to the Stone Age and darkness", all of which would almost certainly constitute war crimes.

Nevertheless, how far Israel – diplomatically, economically and militarily dependent upon the US – can proceed beyond rhetoric is open to question.

"Will Iran come to Hezbollah's aid?" Bregman asked. "One person for sure – a certain Benjamin Netanyahu prays that they do – as it could even postpone the forthcoming elections in Israel in which, if judged by current polls, he will be defeated."

For now, israel claims control of Lebanon's key Ali al remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.