Israel Causes Large Earthquake in Lebanon After Dropping 1,100 Tons of Ordinance on Underground Bases

Footage from Lebanon has shown one of the largest air strikes on record as a result of an Israeli air strike on a major underground Hezbollah military complex beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon. The more than 1,100 tons of explosives reportedly used produced a seismic event, which registered as a 4.1-magnitude earthquake. The operation highlights the extraordinary scale of underground infrastructure constructed by Hezbollah over decades and the growing importance of subterranean warfare in Israel’s campaign to establish a security zone along its northern frontier.

The Israel Defence Forces announced on September 10 that it had completed the destruction of an approximately 2-kilometre-long underground network beneath the ridge, after previously claiming that its forces had gained operational control of both the surface and underground portions of the position. Israel said the complex belonged to Hezbollah’s Badr unit and contained command facilities, weapons storage areas and living quarters intended to allow fighters to remain underground for extended periods. The network reportedly contained rockets, drones and explosive devices. The scale of the demolition was particularly striking, with the U.S. Geological Survey reportedly detecting the event at a depth of approximately 10 kilometres. 

Hezbollah has for over two decades relied heavily on a vast network of underground fortifications constructed by North Korean experts to allow it to asymmetrically counter Israeli forces, with this network impeding Israel’s ongoing efforts to assert control over Southern Lebanon as part of its ongoing invasion. The attack has faced criticism for causing irreversible environmental degradation, widening of existing ground fissures, and causing structural damage to nearby buildings, among other controversies. The demonstrated effectiveness of Hezbollah’s forces on the ground, however, has made it critical to avoid engaging its fortifications with Israeli Army units, which has made large scale air strikes an effective option.