Israeli report says 15 bodies found in Ali al-Taher, pro-Hezbollah daily says only 2 killed
Fifteen bodies were found by the Israeli army in the tunnels of the Ali al-Taher ridge, an Israeli military source told the Maariv newspaper on Friday, hours after Israel announced that it had taken “operational control” of the area and its tunnels.
Israel's military said overnight that troops had cleared Hezbollah fighters from two underground routes, killing some while others fled. It said operations were ongoing. An Israeli official meanwhile said that no Iranians were found in the tunnels.
The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper meanwhile said that “what lies beneath the Ali al-Taher hill is not a single facility whose capture could be considered control over the entire infrastructure there, as the enemy claims, nor is it a cave with a defined entrance and exit.”
“According to available information, beneath the hill is a network of interconnected facilities ... Therefore, the enemy's access to one of these facilities, or even several, does not necessarily guarantee access to the others,” the daily added.
“During the war, the facilities on the hill housed personnel, commanders, computers, and weapons. At that time, the resistance was anticipating the Israeli offensive that had reached the outskirts of Ali al-Taher, with the possibility of it extending towards the city of Nabatieh. There, the attack was decisively repelled. Reports indicate that ‘an entire squadron of enemy soldiers was hit during the confrontation, with casualties among its ranks,’" al-Akhbar said.
“The confrontations did not end there, however, as they were followed by repeated infiltration attempts and clashes on the hill. In all these confrontations, information indicates that the enemy's losses far outweighed the sacrifices made by the resistance in Ali al-Taher,” the newspaper added.
“Israel claims to have killed dozens of resistance fighters in the area. However, according to al-Akhbar's sources, only two were martyred, while dozens of Israeli soldiers were killed or wounded,” al-Akhbar said.
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