US praises Lebanese army for discovering Hezbollah weapons tunnel, while terror group touts its own ‘military strength’

Peloni:  The LAF was tasked last year to disarm Hezbollah, and despite this being their objective, the US is now heralding the LAF having simply identified Hezbollah weapons depots while ignoring their mandate to disarm Hezbollah.  It isn’t that the impossibility of the LAF fulfilling their primary objective is not known to the US, it is that Lebanon’s capture by Hezbollah is treated as an inconvenient truth which is constantly ignored by the Americans who continue to confer bipartisan support (read as nearly half a billion dollars in 2024 and another quarter billion dollars in 2025) for Lebanon.

Hezbollah tunnel was found south of Litani, where Lebanese army claimed terror group’s presence had ended

All Israel News Staff | Published: February 10, 2026

U.S. Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper praised the Lebanese Armed Forces for discovering a massive weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah on Monday, several days after a visit of the LAF commander revealed tensions with the U.S.

The LAF is largely dependent on U.S. funds, and was instructed by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah last year under massive U.S. pressure. The military announced last month that the terror group’s presence in the area south of the Litani River had been removed.

“Congratulations to the LAF for recently finding a massive underground Hezbollah terror tunnel for the second time in the past two months,” Cooper wrote on X, without specifying where the tunnel was found.

“Dismantling tunnels nefariously used by non-state actors to store ammunition, missiles, and attack drones, promotes peace and stability in Lebanon and across the region. Job well done by the LAF and [the] US-led Mechanism team that is helping enforce commitments made by Israel and Lebanon,” he concluded.

However, the Saudi Al-Hadath channel quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that the site was found under the basement of a private home in the al-Halloussiyah area, south of the Litani.

He confirmed that the site was found after the LAF had received U.S. intelligence pointing it to the location. The large depot included 348 packages each containing 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and the official added that the U.S. is pushing the LAF to increase its pace of disarming the terror group, noting the military should be able to carry out this mission on both sides of the Litani River simultaneously.

The LAF has not acknowledged the discovery. While the military has claimed that the area south of the river has been brought under its control, which Israel has disputed, the LAF also said that the process of disarming the powerful Iran-backed militia would be more “much more” complex in the rest of the country, as Hezbollah has vowed to resist.

During last week’s visit to Washington by LAF Commander, General Rodolphe Haykal, Sen. Lindsey Graham walked out of a meeting after the general refused to designate Hezbollah as a “terror group.”

“This is exactly the problem. Hezbollah is not designated as a terrorist organization in Lebanon. The Lebanese army… is not willing to clash with Hezbollah,” explained Sarit Zehavi, from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, in an interview with Fox News Digital.

She also said that the LAF has “helped Hezbollah to conceal its military activity and weapons storages in south Lebanon.”

Matthew Levitt, a leading Hezbollah expert working at the Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital that Haykal’s comment “is only going to further concerns that the LAF sees Hezbollah as an actor with which it should deconflict, rather than disarm… In several instances to date, the LAF appears to have shared with Hezbollah targeting intelligence obtained from Israel through the US-led mechanism rather than acting on it.”

The Lebanese military is dependent on foreign, mainly Western nations for funding and equipment.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated that his group would not give up its weapons, claiming them to be crucial to the country’s security.

“The greatest challenge facing Lebanon is Israeli-American aggression, based on occupation and destruction. We cannot prevent it with words or by relying on the Americans; rather, we will repel it with force and solidarity, just as the IDF was expelled from Lebanon for 24 years. What is this force? It is Hezbollah’s military power, the power of a united people, the power of the Lebanese Army, and the unified internal Lebanese political power rallying around Hezbollah,” Qassem said in a speech during the inauguration of a new hospital in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, the group’s stronghold on the outskirts of Beirut.

Lebanese media reported that the project was overseen by the country’s health minister, Dr. Rakan Nassereddine, who is affiliated with the terror group. Writing upon Nassereddine’s nomination, Lebanon expert Hanin Ghaddar of the Washington Institute had warned that “Control over the Health Ministry could be especially significant because it allocates funds to hospitals and other vital services—a tool that Hezbollah could use to strengthen the health programs it provides to its base.”

The IDF has strongly criticized the LAF’s disarmament efforts as insufficient and has continued launching airstrikes intended to degrade Hezbollah’s remaining capabilities and prevent it from rebuilding.

Lebanese media on Tuesday reported that the Hezbollah artillery commander killed in another Israeli strike in the Yanouh-Jatt area on Monday had been a former LAF soldier.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, meanwhile, condemned the capture of a senior Jamaa Islamiya terrorist on Lebanese territory by the IDF overnight, adding he had instructed the Lebanese foreign minister to raise the issue with the United Nations.

On Tuesday morning, the IDF said it had located and dismantled a weapons storage facility of Jamaa Islamiya in the Beit Jinn area in southern Syria, close to the Lebanese border.