WhatsappFor decades, Israel’s northern security doctrine was built around a dangerous assumption: Hezbollah could be deterred while remaining entrenched across southern Lebanon.
That assumption is disappearing.
The IDF announced that troops have completed a major operation in the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri, located inside Israel’s current security zone. According to the military, soldiers from the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, operating with the elite Yahalom Combat Engineering Unit, destroyed more than 600 Hezbollah infrastructure sites and eight underground routes. Troops also discovered dozens of rocket launchers Hezbollah had left in the area before the ceasefire took effect.
One detail is particularly revealing: the IDF says one of the underground routes was discovered inside a civilian home.
Mansouri therefore represents something much larger than another tactical raid.
Israel appears determined to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding the military infrastructure that allowed southern Lebanon to become a forward operating base against northern Israel.
That matters because Hezbollah’s underground system was not improvised overnight. Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, the IDF says it has uncovered extensive tunnel networks containing command centers, weapons depots, living quarters, rockets, anti-tank missiles, UAVs and infrastructure designed for prolonged military operations. At the Ali al-Taher Ridge, the military said infrastructure dismantled this month had been built over two decades with Iranian funding and planning.
The Mansouri operation fits directly into that broader campaign.
The old model effectively allowed Hezbollah to build military capabilities near Israel while international agreements were supposed to restrain it. Israel is now trying to replace promises with physical security: tunnels destroyed, launchers removed and territory denied to Hezbollah.
The critical question is what happens next.
Destroying 600 sites is impressive. Preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding them is the strategic challenge.
That requires sustained intelligence, operational freedom and control of terrain from which Hezbollah could again threaten northern Israel.
The lesson Israel learned after October 7 is painfully simple: enemy capabilities matter more than enemy promises.
Mansouri suggests Israel intends to apply that lesson to Lebanon as well.
