Majdal Zoun, south Lebanon — The Israel Defense Forces revealed on June 19 that it had discovered an Iranian-financed and designed Hezbollah tunnel in the heart of this town that can be used to launch lethal drones into Israel. The IDF blew up the drone factory and tunnel. An IDF official told me, “It took them [Hezbollah] ten years to build it [the tunnel].”
But new information has also emerged about the shocking penetration of the UN-controlled UNIFIL operation that is tasked with aiding the Lebanese Army in disarming the Hezbollah terrorist group. An IDF official said that the army recently discovered a Lebanese worker for UNIFIL is also a Hezbollah terrorist. The military official added that a Lebanese “Hotel served Hezbollah [and] printed badges for Hezbollah and the UN.” The IDF did not state the name of the suspected Hezbollah terrorist.
The disclosures came during an IDF transport of journalists to Majdal Zoun. An IDF official blasted UNIFIL for failing to disarm Hezbollah, as mandated by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. UNIFIL is an abbreviation for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. The military official said that “UNIFIL is not helping at all. They are trying to hide their support for Hezbollah. UNIFIL tells Hezbollah about IDF vehicle routes.” Photographs from an IDF source also reveal UNIFIL material in a Hezbollah-controlled school in Naqoura.
When questioned about the Hezbollah-controlled school and UNIFIL material, a UNIFIL spokesman said, “UNIFIL regularly carried out community engagement activities including in both public and private schools in south Lebanon before hostilities. This included distribution of UNIFIL-labeled gadgets and stationery. It would of course not be possible to track these items once distributed. And schools have not been operating in the south for many months amidst fierce air and ground clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah.”
When asked about a hotel in Naqoura that, according to the IDF, issued Hezbollah and UNIFIL badges, the spokesman said, “It sounds like a reference to some sort of private business, in which UNIFIL has no right to interfere.” The hotel that allegedly issued both Hezbollah and UNIFIL badges was the Rêve De La Mer Resort, according to sources. The hotel was damaged during the IDF’s seizure of the Hezbollah-controlled town of Naqoura.
UNIFIL’s failure is obvious. Hezbollah rebuilt its missile arsenal since 2006, in defiance of UNSC Resolution 1701, and accumulated as many as 150,000 rockets before Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hezbollah swiftly entered the war a day later in October to aid its strategic partner, the Hamas terrorist movement. But UNIFIL will now formally end its operations on 31 December 2026.
Hezbollah, however, will remain a persistent threat. The IDF permitted a small number of foreign journalists to embed with its soldiers in south Lebanon to inspect the tunnel that contains over 50 killer drones and a room packed with eight tons of mines and bombs. The new tunnel, located a mere 20 meters from a mosque in the center of the town, contains four launchpads to fire the sophisticated killer drones into the Jewish state. “To build a tunnel with a launch site is an Iranian method,” a military spokesman noted. He added that “Hezbollah tunnels are good but not as good [as the Iranian ones].”
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The IDF said that the new tunnel is ”over 200 meters long and more than 25 meters deep, containing four launch shafts and 12 rooms, including living quarters and rooms used to store explosive devices, anti-tank missiles, and UAVs.” An IDF military official said the Shiite town had a population of 2,000 and “Hezbollah has great support in the village.”
Yet, since the outbreak of the war with Hezbollah in October 2023, Majdal Zoun has become a ghost town.
Benjamin Weinthal is a freelance journalist who covers Middle East affairs for Fox News Digital and Iran International.