IDF finds weapons stockpiles, Hezbollah military site near UN posts in south Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on November 8 that troops operating in Israel’s self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon found two weapons and equipment stockpiles and an apartment used by Hezbollah for military purposes near United Nations posts. The three sites were located between 100 and 250 meters from positions held by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The IDF’s 9th Oded Reserve Brigade Combat Team, operating under the 91st Division, found the two stockpiles in the southern Lebanese border town of Mais al Jabal. One was inside a civilian home approximately 200 meters from a UNIFIL post, while another was inside a storage facility approximately 100 meters from a UNIFIL post. The IDF provided a combined inventory from the two sites that included Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rounds, a PK general-purpose machine gun, fragmentation grenades, an explosive device, ammunition, communications equipment, and surveillance equipment. The military said it found the materiel alongside humanitarian-aid boxes and emblems of Hezbollah and the Lebanese Shiite Amal Movement. Separately, the IDF 91st Division’s Kfir Brigade Combat Team found an apartment in the southern Lebanese village of Al Tiri approximately 250 meters from a UN post that the Israeli military said Hezbollah used for military purposes. Troops found surveillance equipment, combat gear, living supplies, and Hezbollah emblems inside. The IDF called the discoveries “further evidence that the UNIFIL force has failed in its mission.” Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, UNIFIL is tasked with assisting the Lebanese Armed Forces in establishing the area between the Blue Line and the Litani River as free of armed personnel, assets, and weapons other than those of the Lebanese government and UNIFIL. The resolution also authorizes UNIFIL, within its capabilities and area of deployment, to act to prevent its area of operations from being used for hostile activities. The latest finds add to a documented history, predating the 2006 Lebanon War, of Hezbollah maintaining military positions, tunnels, weapons facilities, and launch sites near UNIFIL positions. Circa 2006 July 2006 — Houla and other locations along the Blue Line: A UN secretary-general’s report said Hezbollah maintained and reinforced observation posts and other positions near UNIFIL facilities, particularly around the southern Lebanese border village of Houla. Hezbollah installed surveillance cameras, built new positions and access roads, and reinforced existing facilities along the UN-drawn Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel. UNIFIL commander Major General Alain Pellegrini protested Hezbollah construction near UN positions on March 23, June 27, and July 5, 2006. July 25, 2006 — Khiam: A postwar UN investigation documented a Hezbollah base approximately 150 meters from a UN observation post at Khiam, staffed by multinational United Nations Truce Supervision Organization observers operating under UNIFIL command. The investigation also identified another Hezbollah operational facility at the nearby former Khiam prison. 2006–2023 December 4, 2018 — Kfar Kila: During Operation Northern Shield, Israel’s 2018 operation to locate and destroy Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels, the IDF uncovered a tunnel originating beneath a former concrete-block factory in the southern Lebanese border village of Kfar Kila, opposite the Israeli town of Metulla. IDF spokesman Brigadier General Ronen Manelis said the Lebanese tunnel opening was only a few meters from a UNIFIL post and patrol route. Later that month, UNIFIL independently confirmed the Lebanese opening after concrete pumped into the tunnel from Israel emerged inside the factory. Israel ultimately uncovered six Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels during Northern Shield. March 5–August 24, 2023 — Houla: A UN secretary-general’s report said a container belonging to Green Without Borders, an ostensibly environmental Lebanese organization later designated by the United States as a Hezbollah front, was installed near the front gate of a UNIFIL position on March 5, inhibiting movement into and out of the post. Another UN report said containers by the gate were replaced on August 24 by a more permanent structure. The US Treasury Department designated Green Without Borders that month, identifying it as a Hezbollah cover organization whose outposts concealed underground weapons warehouses and munitions-storage tunnels. The UN reports did not establish that the particular Houla structure contained weapons. Since the Israel-Hezbollah conflict renewed in 2023 December 10–12, 2023 — Southern Lebanon: The IDF said Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel on December 10 from approximately 20 meters from a UN compound. On December 12, it reported that Hezbollah had launched another rocket approximately 130 meters from a UN compound and said additional launches had originated from the same area during the preceding weeks. August 19–20, 2024 — Al Mansouri/Al Taybeh area: The IDF struck ready-to-fire Hezbollah rocket launchers in the southern Lebanese Al Mansouri/Al Taybeh area. Independent geolocation analyst Ben Tzion Macales subsequently placed one launcher approximately 620 meters from a UNIFIL base. August 25–27, 2024 — Al Hinniyeh: UNIFIL said it detected a rocket launch from near one of its positions in the southern Lebanese village of Al Hinniyeh during Hezbollah’s large-scale August 25 attack against Israel. An Israeli military spokesman separately said Hezbollah launch sites were approximately 150 meters from a UN position there, while the IDF published imagery showing dozens of Hezbollah launchers near the UN site. October 13, 2024 — Labbouneh: The IDF said forces from its 146th Reserve Division had uncovered hundreds of weapons, including firearms, grenades, and rocket launchers, in underground compounds located between a few dozen and several hundred meters from UNIFIL positions near the Blue Line. During an embedded press visit in the Labbouneh area near Lebanon’s southwestern border, The Washington Post reported that journalists were shown a Hezbollah tunnel shaft approximately 65 yards, or 59 meters, from a UNIFIL observation tower. The European Broadcasting Union later geolocated the area to UN Position 1-31 near Labbouneh, which was manned by Italian peacekeepers. November 8, 2024 — Southern Lebanon: The IDF announced that the 9th Oded Reserve Brigade had uncovered a Hezbollah training and weapons facility approximately 200 meters from a UNIFIL base during one of its raids. The compound contained large quantities of weapons, launchers prepared to fire at Israel, tunnel shafts, instructional material, maps of Israel, and information about IDF equipment. July 29, 2026 — Haddatha: The IDF announced that troops from the 401st Armored Brigade Combat Team, including the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion and Yahalom, had destroyed a Hezbollah underground command route approximately 300 meters from a UNIFIL building in the southern Lebanese village of Haddatha. The roughly 55-meter-long tunnel, built beneath a construction-materials factory, contained three rooms. Troops also found a nearby underground shaft containing dozens of weapons. November 8, 2026 — Mais Al Jabal: The IDF announced that the 9th Oded Reserve Brigade had found two weapons and equipment stockpiles, one inside a civilian residence approximately 200 meters from a UN post and another inside a storage facility approximately 100 meters from a UN post. The combined inventory included rifles, RPG launchers and rockets, a machine gun, grenades, an explosive device, ammunition, and communications and surveillance equipment. Hezbollah and Amal emblems were found alongside the materiel. November 8, 2026 — Al Tiri: The Kfir Brigade found an apartment used by Hezbollah for military purposes approximately 250 meters from a UN post. Troops found surveillance equipment, combat gear, living supplies, and Hezbollah emblems inside. UNIFIL has also uncovered hundreds of unauthorized weapons caches since the November 2024 ceasefire. The United Nations said in January 2026 that peacekeepers had discovered 405 weapons caches in their area of operations since the ceasefire went into effect and had reported the discoveries to the Lebanese Armed Forces. The UN Security Council’s August 2025 resolution granting UNIFIL its final mandate extension encouraged the force commander, in coordination with the Lebanese military, to fully employ UNIFIL’s operational activities aimed at discovering tunnels and weapons caches. Resolution 2790 extended UNIFIL’s mandate through December 31, 2026, when the mission is scheduled to cease operations and begin an orderly withdrawal to be completed within one year. David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs.