The IDF said on Wednesday that, over the course of the Lebanon invasion, it seized 85,170 Hezbollah military items from over 30 villages in southern Lebanon.
Many of these items were presented on exhibit to the Jerusalem Post and other reporters on Tuesday at an IDF base in the North.
Among these items are 2,250 larger rockets, 6,840 smaller anti-tank missiles, and rockets, of which 340 are more advanced Kornet missiles.
There are also 60 anti-aircraft missiles and 20 vehicles, often with the capability of firing a dozen or multiple dozens of rockets at a time.
Next, the IDF also seized 9,000 improvised explosives, 5,560 guns, and around 60,800 electronic items, equipment, and documents.
The large scale to which Hezbollah has been weakened
The IDF also said on Wednesday that it killed 3,851 Hezbollah terrorists and wounded around 9,000 since the start of the current war. Of the terrorists eliminated, around 3,017 were killed since mid-September when the IDF started a massive bombing campaign and the Lebanon invasion on September 30, and an additional 44 since the November 26 ceasefire.
The other more than 800 were killed over the course of the first year of the war, spread out over smaller operations from the air or smaller altercations between ground forces on the border.
While former defense minister Yoav Gallant has said 80% of Hezbollah’s larger scale firepower has been eliminated, and others have confirmed this, the IDF on Wednesday put out numbers of 75% of short-range rockets and 70% of strategic weapons being destroyed. A certain category of around 40,000 mortars has also been reduced to 6,000-8,000.
Another category of more strategic and long-range rockets which had been at around 1,000 has been reduced to around 100.
Prior to the war, the IDF had estimated all of Hezbollah’s larger weapons, including mortars, at around 150,000. At press time, the IDF had not provided a broader updated number of what this total number has been reduced to, though the Jerusalem Post saw around 5,000 seized mortars at an IDF base in the North on Tuesday.
Also, 700 Radwan special forces have been killed and another 1,300 wounded, with around 70% of Radwan commanders killed.
Minor violations of the ceasefire
Since the start of the ceasefire, the IDF said that Hezbollah has had 120 mostly minor violations, with a small number of those also involving attempts by Hezbollah to move some of its rockets from one location to another, and the IDF generally attacking cells involved in this activity. 25 of the violations were more significant than others.
There has only been one instance in the first week of the ceasefire where Hezbollah fired into Israel, and even that instance involved only two mortars fired into an open area of the Golan Heights.
During the invasion, IDF Division 91 has operated in more than 10 different districts, while Division 98 has operated in at least six – though there probably was also some overlap between the two. Division 91 reached all the way to the Litani River and the Saluki parts of southern Lebanon, which are deeper into the country. Some of the areas Division 98 operated were in Khiam, Al-Adaysseh, Rab Al-Tlatin, Marjayoun, Al-Taybeh, and Al-Khiam.
In addition, Division 91 said it had destroyed 1,000 Hezbollah sites, while Division 98 said it had destroyed more than 300. IDF sources told the Post that in some large sites, there might be several hundred or more mortars to confiscate all at once.
While Division 98 was the first IDF division to enter Lebanon and handled some of the toughest initial fighting in light of its status as a de facto special forces division, it eventually handed off much of the rest of the operation to Divisions 91, 36, and 146.
On October 8, the Jerusalem Post embedded with Division 91 Commander Brig.-Gen. Shai Kleper, along with a small number of other Israeli media outlets and he said, “We are standing in one of the battle areas on the Lebanese front. We are acting to harm, neutralize, and destroy Radwan operatives and their attack plan in terms of their capabilities and infrastructure.”
“We are in a weapons storage area for Radwan [inside a village civilian house]. You can see hundreds of vests, mortars, mines… all the weapons they need. An operative could show up here in jeans and sandals, receive all of his war supplies, a map, and a plan of attack for which he was pre-trained,” he continued.
Other key commanders have been Brig.-Gen. Guy Levi of Division 98, Brig.-Gen. Moran Omer’s of Division 36, and Brig.-Gen. Yiftach Norkin of Division 146.
In recent weeks, Division 98 zoned in on Al-Khiam, which had become a central Hezbollah stronghold for firing thousands of rockets at Israel prior to the November 26 ceasefire.
On December 12, the IDF started withdrawing from portions of southern Lebanon as part of its commitment to a full withdrawal by January 26. However, there have been hints that whether the IDF observes the 60 days precisely will also depend on Hezbollah’s compliance with its obligations on the ground.
IDF sources have said that the Lebanese army is starting to take control of the areas where Israeli forces withdrew from, though it remains unclear whether that military will be able to hold on to those areas versus Hezbollah once the full IDF withdrawal has occurred and Jerusalem’s attention is elsewhere.
To date, Hezbollah has respected the ceasefire in a broad sense.
Prior to November 26, Hezbollah was firing around 100-250 rockets a day on around one-third of the country, including the very populous Haifa region.
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