Smotrich says Israel will remain in Lebanon for years

IDF soldier killed, 13 injured in overnight Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon

Sgt. First Class Nir Ben Ari is killed amid effort to capture terror group’s ‘strategic’ underground facility beneath Ali Taher ridge; 3 more troops killed in Friday incident named

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed and 13 others wounded in southern Lebanon during an attack by the Hezbollah terror group early Saturday morning.

The slain soldier was named as Sgt. First Class Nir Ben Ari, 21, of the Commando Brigade’s Maglan unit, from Kerem Maharal.

He was killed amid operations to capture a major underground Hezbollah facility beneath the Ali Taher ridge. The IDF said Saturday it “halted its fire” outside its declared “security zone” in southern Lebanon, but would continue operations within it, including the ridge.

According to a military probe, at around 1:30 a.m., a barrage of rockets and an explosive drone struck a military position in the Nabatieh-area village of Kfar Tebnit.

The Iran-backed terror group’s projectiles killed Ben Ari and wounded 13 other troops, including two in serious condition, one moderately and 10 who were lightly hurt. The troops were taken to a hospital, and their families were notified.

Following the deadly attack, the IDF carried out strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in the Nabatieh area.

The attack came after four soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack on a tank in southern Lebanon early Friday morning, also amid operations to capture the facility beneath Ali Taher.

In that attack, Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, 32, the commander of the 52nd Battalion, and three members of his crew were killed after a drone or anti-tank missile struck their tank.

Staff Sgt. Yoav Klein, 21, from Herzliya, and Staff Sgt. Liav Kababia, 20, from Hod Hasharon, were identified by the military on Saturday as two of the slain soldiers.

The name of the fourth soldier killed in the attack was released on Sunday morning. He was identified as Staff Sgt. Nave Habshoosh, 20, from Geva Binyamin.

A military probe has determined that, contrary to several media reports, the tank was hit by Hezbollah fire, and the blast was not the cause of a malfunction. The IDF believes the tank was struck by an anti-tank guided missile or a drone carrying an anti-tank warhead.

The IDF has assessed that Hezbollah has a major “strategic” underground facility beneath the Ali Taher ridge, which is located near Nabatieh. According to the military, the underground site is the “nerve center” of Hezbollah’s Badr regional division.

According to the military, dozens of Hezbollah operatives remain holed up underground in the area, and fighting has taken place above and below ground in recent days.

The ridge was originally not included in the military’s security zone in southern Lebanon, but on Thursday the IDF published an updated map of the “forward defense area,” which now includes Ali Taher, along with the Majdal Zoun area.

After the Hezbollah attacks that killed the IDF troops, Israel carried out a wave of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon overnight and into Saturday afternoon.

The terror group, violating a ceasefire, had launched more than 175 projectiles at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon over the past day, according to Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter.

Israel’s retaliatory strikes killed at least 27 people and wounded at least 26, first responders and Lebanese media reported.

The IDF said Saturday it had “halted its fire” outside its declared “security zone” in southern Lebanon, in accordance with instructions from the political leadership, but would continue its operations within the zone.

The weekend fighting came after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, in which the Islamic Republic agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and the US to lift its blockade on Iranian ships and ports.

On Saturday, days after the strait was reopened, Iran’s central military command claimed to have once again closed it, saying the IDF strikes in southern Lebanon violated the agreement.

The US military, however, denied the strait was shuttered, saying it remained open and that US forces were monitoring the situation to ensure that continued.

Israel was not part of the negotiating process leading up to the MoU, nor was it a signatory to the agreement; however, the memorandum purported to obligate both the US “and its allies” to “an immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promised that Israel will stay in the security zone it is holding inside Lebanon for years to come, and won’t withdraw even in the face of an explicit US demand to do so.

In an interview with the Makor Rishon newspaper published over the weekend, Smotrich added that he estimates that no such American demand will come, because “they understand our red lines.”

Asked if the military will stay in Lebanon for years, the far-right minister said: “Yes, and I say this as someone who is currently holding negotiations over the management of the defense budget for the next decade.”

Asked if Israel should be forming army posts and entire bases in the security zone, Smotrich replied: “Everything, definitely. We are there until Hezbollah disarms, and I think also beyond that, because we need defendable borders.” He argued that the border set by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 is illogical and didn’t consider the terrain’s topography.

“But of course, until Hezbollah disarms, we aren’t moving a millimeter. This is the stance of the prime minister and the defense minister, and mine too, and we are determined to stick to it.”

Hezbollah, which has kept up incessant drone and rocket attacks on Israel’s north, dragged Lebanon into the regional war with Iran in early March by firing rockets at Israel for the first time since a November 2024 ceasefire deal.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a full-scale invasion in Lebanon, subsequently establishing a buffer zone that currently runs up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep from the border into Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah’s renewed attacks on Israel came in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran on February 28. The fighting in Iran entered a truce on April 8 even as Israel and Hezbollah continued exchanging fire.

Under the November 2024 deal, which ended over a year of earlier hostilities initiated by Hezbollah, the Lebanese army was supposed to disarm the terror group. Beirut has so far failed to do so.

In the US-brokered Israeli-Lebanese talks that began in April, the sides affirmed their support for the 2024 agreement. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has slammed the Lebanese government for negotiating directly with Israel.