IDF releases exclusive footage from the first tunnel exchange in the history of the IDF. Operation "Closed Circle" set out to destroy Hezbollah's huge underground terror base about two months ago in the village of Rab El Thalathine in southern Lebanon.
Watch extraordinary footage from the bowels of the earth:
Rare footage of first tunnel battle
(Video: IDF)
Soldiers from the Engineering Corps fought for 36 hours against the Radwan squad that guarded Hezbollah's strategic asset, which was intended to serve as the main base for the invasion of the Upper Galilee, and to conquer Kiryat Shmona, Misgav Am, and Manara.
The huge compound was dug for more than a decade, under the nose of the IDF and only about two kilometers from the border with Israel, Hezbollah prepared living quarters like those in IDF bases for more than 200 of the terror organization's elite terrorists.
The compound also included dining rooms, communications control rooms, safes, food, water and generators for a protected and hidden stay of months, and especially bunkers that contained thousands of advanced weapons: ammunition for a battalion scale, RPG and long-range anti-tank missiles, IEDs of various sizes, hundreds of rifles, tactical uniforms, helmets, vests, walkie-talkies and more.
Paratrooper soldiers were the first to uncover the huge base that was hidden behind a secret door on a mountainside that cannot be seen directly from Israel. "It was a brown and protected door where we found advanced, ready-to-use Iranian-made IEDs. The door seemed suspicious to me, and saw that it was exactly like other doors in southern Lebanon that my friends had found. Behind them were terror tunnels carved into the mountain. At that moment I realized that we had found what we were looking for," described the squadron commander, Major A.
However, a deadly surprise awaited the 28-year-old officer beyond the door that no engineering soldier had ever had, armed terrorists who were well prepared to protect the strategic asset. According to Major A., "We broke through the door, and then in front of us was a narrow, partially lit corridor tunnel, which led to another door. We moved slowly, and then I looked up and saw a security camera peephole turned in my direction, and behind it were wires connected to a large explosive device, weighing 35 kilograms.
A door at the end of the tunnel
A. knew that this was probably the last sight of his life, as a Hezbollah terrorist watching him through a rear camera could now activate the powerful device inside the tunnel. The 28-year-old officer from the IDF's elite unit had two options: scream at his comrades who were clinging to him to run amok back to the tunnel entrance or fire a bullet at the camera in front of him, hoping that the terrorist in front of the monitor had not yet noticed them.
"I made a split-second decision to shoot at the camera, and that was the most dangerous moment in my opinion of the operation," the squadron commander described. He and his soldiers then broke through the door, already hearing gunshots and muffled shouts in Arabic from the inner complex beyond the entrance at the end of the tunnel, and then he made another, no less important decision. "I peeked inside a little, hoping to see an electrical cabinet, which was indeed there. I approached with cover and fired at him so that all the lights in the large, sealed compound would go out, and then the advantage would pass from the terrorists to us."
The IDF and Hezbollah engaged in a long battle, at the end of which the terrorists managed to escape wounded and bleeding through hidden escape shafts that emerged from the west of the village, away from the IDF forces. According to intelligence, at least two of them died from their wounds. There were no casualties in the IDF, not even the special negotiating force that was rushed to the scene and tried to convince the terrorists to surrender.
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After clearing the huge base deep underground, came the most dangerous and greatest challenge, destroying the monster in the mountain, in an operation that became the largest engineering explosion in the history of the IDF, with more than 400 tons of explosives. The explosion was so large that on the morning of Saturday, October 26, it caused an earthquake warning in northern Israel.