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Israel Defense Minister Hails Capture of Ali Al-Taher Ridge from Hezbollah

A satellite image shows damage at the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatiah, Lebanon, March 8, 2026. 2026 (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows damage at the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatiah, Lebanon, March 8, 2026. 2026 (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
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Israel Defense Minister Hails Capture of Ali Al-Taher Ridge from Hezbollah

A satellite image shows damage at the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatiah, Lebanon, March 8, 2026. 2026 (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows damage at the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatiah, Lebanon, March 8, 2026. 2026 (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)

Israel's defense minister on Friday hailed the capture of a strategic highland from Hezbollah as solidifying Israel's "security zone" in occupied parts of southern Lebanon and vowed that troops would not leave it. 

"The capture of the Ali Tahar ridge marks the completion of the phase of securing control in the security zone in southern Lebanon," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. 

The Israeli military "will now complete the neutralization of the tunnels and prepare in the appropriate tactical manner to hold the ridge and prevent the enemy from re-establishing itself in the area", Katz said. 

He said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces close-fought elections on October 27, will pursue a "clear and uncompromising line" on Lebanon. 

"Israel will not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed throughout Lebanon and the threats over the residents of the Galilee are removed," Katz said, referring to Israel's northern region. 

Israel's military said on Thursday it had taken "operational control" of the Ali al-Taher area, the site of sporadic clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in recent weeks. It is where Hezbollah is believed to have an extensive underground military facility.  

The military said troops had cleared Hezbollah fighters from two underground routes, killing some while others fled. It said operations were ongoing.  

Operations aimed at neutralizing underground infrastructure, after clearing them of Hezbollah operatives, are ongoing, with the military set to redeploy defensively following the completion of the activity, based on a situational assessment, it added.  

The military accused the fighters inside the facilities of working to carry out plots against Israel and army forces. It noted that operations in the area in recent weeks have neutralized the capability to launch attacks against Israelis and army forces from it.  

The Israeli army stated that inside the underground infrastructure, it discovered operations rooms, rooms designated for combat gear, and others for generators and accommodation, in addition to showering facilities and a kitchen, allowing Hezbollah fighters to manage combat and remain inside for extended periods.  

It described these facilities as "strategic infrastructure" built over two decades, saying they were planned and funded by the Iranian regime.  

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.  

The Israeli army said its forces will continue to clear the occupied "security zone" in southern Lebanon of Hezbollah, saying it will not allow the party to carry out plots against it.  

Any attempt by Hezbollah to launch attacks against the army "will be met with force," warned Israel, while saying it was committed to the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.  

The Ali al-Taher hill overlooks several villages as well as main roads leading to the city of Nabatieh. Losing control of it would disrupt Hezbollah’s presence and supply lines in the area. 

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since early March when the group dragged Lebanon into the wider Middle East war by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. 

Israel has since carried out a massive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion that have killed more than 4,300 people, according to Lebanese authorities. 

The conflict has calmed since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel’s government agreed in June, but the deal between Tehran and Washington has been shaky, with US forces this week resuming attacks on Iran. 

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Arab World

Asharq Al-Awsat Reveals Details of Operation to Kidnap Senior Hamas Official

Locals gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, 01 September 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Locals gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, 01 September 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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Asharq Al-Awsat Reveals Details of Operation to Kidnap Senior Hamas Official

Locals gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, 01 September 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Locals gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, 01 September 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Sources in Hamas have revealed new details about the operation to kidnap the group's senior security official, Moeen al-Arabid, last Tuesday by an Israeli special forces unit that carried out a rare operation deep inside Hamas-controlled territory west of Gaza City.

The operation killed Samah al-Arabid, the abductee's wife, and wounded two of his sons, his daughter, and two of his bodyguards. Two children who were in the area when the Israeli special forces unit carried out the operation were also killed.

How the operation began

Sources familiar with the investigation told Asharq Al-Awsat that the security operation began about two months ago, when officers from Israel's Shin Bet security agency posed as representatives of an international aid organization that would provide assistance to Palestinians by setting up small businesses, including stalls selling vegetables, drinks and other goods in the target area, specifically along what is known as Villas Street in the Katiba neighborhood, west of Gaza City.

According to the sources, Shin Bet used Palestinian operatives, including women, to run the project and supply them with vegetables every day, presenting them as aid from the organization. The proceeds from the sales were supposedly to benefit those participating in the project.

The operatives later asked them to monitor certain homes and track the movements of specific individuals in the area, including al-Arabid.

The sources said it later emerged that those running the project had been collaborating with Shin Bet. On the day of the operation, new individuals appeared at some of the stalls, while others had been there since the previous day selling vegetables. They were later identified as Shin Bet operatives who had arrived in the area and concealed their weapons inside the stalls. When the operation began, they took part in the attack before disappearing and withdrawing from the area.

This was not the first time Israel has used the cover of international organizations to conduct operations inside the Gaza Strip. A similar incident occurred when an Israeli special forces unit infiltrated Al-Shifa Hospital in March 2024 before military reinforcements arrived at the site. That operation subsequently continued for two weeks, during which Hamas members and operatives from its various security and military branches were killed or captured, including commanders from the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Prior presence

Regarding the latest operation west of Gaza City, the sources said the Israeli special forces operatives do not appear to have entered the area beforehand except for several brief visits, apparently to gain a clearer picture of the area and finalize plans for the operation.

Instead, they relied on surveillance carried out by the collaborators. According to the investigation so far, those collaborators apparently did not know the precise objective of the operation or the actual plan. Some also documented on camera whatever their Israeli handlers instructed them to record.

The investigation indicates that some of the Shin Bet operatives who carried out the operation had been in the area one or two days earlier in moving vehicles. At least one of those vehicles was later targeted and destroyed by Israeli aircraft after the operation.

Zero hour

When the attack began, the special forces unit attempted to catch al-Arabid off guard by opening fire on him as he emerged from his home with one of his bodyguards. He managed to fire back, while the Israeli forces fired rounds containing an anesthetic agent at him.

Another bodyguard opened fire on the force, while two of al-Arabid's sons and his wife also fired at the attackers. All were subsequently wounded by gunfire. At the same time, a small quadcopter drone dropped a bomb on the house.

The attack killed his wife and critically wounded one of his sons. His other son's eye had to be surgically removed. He had been due to get married that same day. Other members of the family and bodyguards were also wounded.

According to the injured people interviewed as part of the investigation, al-Arabid attempted to escape through the rear of the house during the ensuing clashes. He was surprised by another Israeli force waiting there. Although wounded and crawling, he continued to fire at them. They then detonated a stun grenade near him before taking him captive.

One source said the initial denial that al-Arabid had been abducted resulted from his son's insistence that his father had managed to escape. The family did not know that another Israeli force was positioned at the rear of the house and had captured him, leading to confusion in the initial reports about what had happened.

The investigation found that after al-Arabid fled, the Israeli special forces searched the wounded in an attempt to establish his identity before leaving them behind. Some were bleeding at the scene, including his wife. The force later captured him in the street behind the house as he attempted to escape despite his injuries.

Arrests of collaborators

According to one source, at least 36 suspects have been arrested so far and are being questioned over suspected involvement in assisting the Israeli special forces unit. The source said some of those arrested have confessed to collaborating with Israel, while investigations are still underway.

In an account broadly consistent with information provided to Asharq Al-Awsat sources, Gaza's Al-Hares security platform reported that three collaborators, including a woman, had been arrested. They allegedly posed as an international relief organization to facilitate movement in the area and gather intelligence.

Their confessions reportedly indicated that the special forces unit arrived at the scene only hours before the operation was exposed and had no prior presence in the area. They also said the outbreak of clashes prompted the special forces to call for assistance from Israeli aircraft.

Hamas previously arrested dozens of suspects following a similar operation in 2018, when an Israeli special forces unit infiltrated the Gaza Strip and conducted extensive activities there for several months.

Another abduction attempt

Separately, Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said early Friday that armed groups had attempted to abduct one of its members on Al-Jameiza Street in the town of al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis.

The group said the armed men entered the area with support from Israeli drones. They were discovered, triggering clashes that left several members of the group dead or wounded.

It said Israeli drones intervened to assist the special forces in withdrawing from the area. Members of the force then killed one of the Al-Quds Brigades members, Fadi al-Abadala, after shooting him and leaving him at the scene.

A field source told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Abadala arrived at Nasser Medical Complex with his hands bound, indicating that the abduction had apparently succeeded. The source said he may have been interrogated before the abduction attempt and subsequently executed, adding that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Arab World

Iraq’s Maliki Joins Chorus Rejecting Militia Disarmament

Members of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah carry the group’s flag in central Baghdad. (File photo - AFP)
Members of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah carry the group’s flag in central Baghdad. (File photo - AFP)
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Iraq’s Maliki Joins Chorus Rejecting Militia Disarmament

Members of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah carry the group’s flag in central Baghdad. (File photo - AFP)
Members of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah carry the group’s flag in central Baghdad. (File photo - AFP)

State of Law Coalition leader Nouri al-Maliki has joined a growing chorus of critics of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government program, unanimously approved by parliament, to restrict arms to state control.

Less than a month after the State Administration Coalition, comprising leading Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish forces, gave Zaidi full authority to determine how to handle the issue after Sept. 30 — when the remaining US troops are due to leave Iraq — armed factions, notably Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, rejected the deadline. They argue that their weapons are “ideological” and tied to the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance.”

Maliki joined them Wednesday, declaring in televised remarks that “there will be no handover of weapons” after Sept. 30.

Instead, he advocated “regulation and containment” of weapons through a mechanism still under discussion.

Maliki pointed that distinctions could be drawn among heavy, medium and light arms.

His position came despite an earlier warning from the State Administration Coalition that any armed activity outside state authority after Sept. 30 would be dealt with under the counterterrorism law.

Shifting Terms

A visit to Iraq by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf further complicated the process amid indications that Tehran was unwilling to see all factions surrender their weapons.

The government subsequently agreed to a Shiite Coordination Framework committee that would begin talks with armed groups after the end of September to persuade them to establish a mechanism for “regulating weapons, not disarming them,” as Maliki put it.

Maliki serves on the three-member committee alongside former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Badr Organization leader Hadi al-Amiri.

While Sudani has made no statement on surrendering weapons, Amiri and Maliki have taken turns, using terms such as “regulating,” “freezing” or “deferring” weapons rather than “disarmament.”

Maliki’s comments followed Amiri’s description two days earlier of the 2019 Tishreen protests as a “sedition” intended to topple the Shiite political system.

Amiri also identified the “resistance” as the so-called “third party” that carried out killings of protesters, leaving thousands dead or wounded, mostly from poor Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and central and southern provinces.

Political observers viewed his remarks as a deliberate message that armed factions “were, and remain, the ones protecting the political system when it is threatened.”

Akram al-Kaabi, secretary-general of Harakat al-Nujaba, meanwhile said US President Donald Trump was “deluded” if he believed he could achieve a victory in Iraq after failing to do so in Iran.

The government has maintained that the deadline for surrendering weapons remains unchanged and coincides with the US withdrawal, saying armed groups could be compelled to comply once the American presence ends and there is no longer justification for carrying arms.

Saleh al-Arbawi, head of the Wa’i Movement, told Asharq Al-Awsat that any handover could be circumvented or merely symbolic, saying armed groups follow “a transnational ideology and leadership” and have received no order to relinquish their weapons.

The government, he said, faces either confrontation or potentially lengthy dialogue and compromise. He added that the wider the current conflict becomes, the more difficult restricting arms to state control will be.

Arab World

Syria Says Thwarted Escape Attempt of Man Linked to Assad-era General

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria Says Thwarted Escape Attempt of Man Linked to Assad-era General

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)

Syrian authorities on Thursday said they foiled an escape attempt by a man close to a general who served ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad and led a militia linked to Assad's cousin.

Security forces in the Damascus countryside said they "thwarted an escape attempt by Alaa Zahreddine, a key associate of the criminal Ghiath Dalla and former leader of the 'Shield of the Homeland Brigade' militia", accusing him of being "implicated in crimes against civilians".

"After his identity was confirmed during a stop at a security checkpoint, Zahreddine drew his weapon and shot himself, committing suicide to avoid capture. His companion in the vehicle was arrested."

Syrian authorities had previously said that the brigade was linked to Rami Makhlouf, cousin of former Syrian president Assad who was ousted in 2024.

The operation comes days after security forces said they killed an Assad-era army commander in a firefight while trying to arrest him in the Alawite-majority Syrian coast.

Authorities said both men were linked to Assad-era general Dalla.

Dalla, a former officer in the much-feared Fourth Brigade, had announced on social media last year the formation of a "military council for the liberation of Syria".

The announcement came shortly before deadly violence targeting the Alawite minority, to which Assad's family belongs, erupted on the Syrian coast in March 2025.

Authorities accused armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces.

A national commission of inquiry said at least 1,426 members of the minority were killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor put the toll at more than 1,700.