Israel Defense Forces soldiers arrested an operative of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force during operations in Southern Lebanon, the military announced on Wednesday night.
The Radwan Force is Hezbollah’s commando unit that specializes in cross-border infiltration operations and for years trained to invade northern Israel and seize communities under a plan known as “Conquer the Galilee.”
The military said that “following IDF soldiers’ activity yesterday (Tuesday) in the area of Bint Jbeil, the IDF can now confirm that, during the encounter, the soldiers apprehended an additional Hezbollah terrorist.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the IDF said it had killed a Hezbollah terrorist during the same incident in the Bint Jbeil area.
The incident took place in the same area where an IDF reservist was seriously wounded during an encounter with a Hezbollah operative on July 2.
“The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat to its soldiers and will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to harm Israeli civilians,” said the army.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah renewed its rocket and drone attacks from Southern Lebanon on Israel on March 2, following the targeted killing in Tehran of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of “Operation Roaring Lion” on Feb. 28.
In response, Jerusalem launched a broad aerial campaign against Hezbollah targets and expanded military operations in Lebanon aimed at preventing cross-border attacks on Israeli communities.
Following the resumption of hostilities, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun vowed to do “the impossible” to stop cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, and moved to outlaw the Iranian proxy.
Israeli and Lebanese officials subsequently held five rounds of historic direct talks at the U.S. State Department, resulting in a framework of understandings that was reached on June 26 and conditions an Israeli redeployment on Hezbollah being removed from the south.
