The IDF said Tuesday that Hezbollah may be nearing total collapse, citing extensive damage inflicted since the November ceasefire agreement that ended two months of open warfare between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.

According to IDF officials, more than 500 airstrikes have been carried out against Hezbollah positions across Lebanon since the ceasefire began. These strikes — combined with hundreds of ground operations in southern Lebanon — have, in the army’s estimation, “fundamentally degraded” Hezbollah’s fighting force and infrastructure.

“We are pushing away every threat and eliminating anyone who tries to threaten the border area,” said Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, outgoing head of the IDF Northern Command, during a briefing at one of five Israeli army outposts currently located inside southern Lebanon.

While international attention has largely shifted away from the northern front since the ceasefire, the IDF has quietly continued its operations with lethal precision. Over the past eight months, Israeli strikes have reportedly eliminated at least 230 Hezbollah operatives, destroyed 90 rocket launchers, and obliterated thousands of rockets, as well as 20 command centers, 40 weapon depots, and five arms production sites.

“We strike Hezbollah at every opportunity,” Gordin said, standing beside IDF bulldozers fortifying positions just beyond Metula. “They’re far from us now — and getting weaker every day.”

The IDF estimates that Hezbollah has lost up to 5,000 fighters killed and another 9,000 wounded—many of them from the elite Radwan forces — rendering over half of the unit’s 6,000-strong force incapable of returning to the battlefield. Israeli assessments also claim the group has lost 70-80% of its rocket firepower, including key long-range capabilities.

Hezbollah’s command structure has also been hollowed out. “They’re struggling to fill ranks, and their leadership — especially at the tactical level — is gone,” an Israeli military source told reporters.

The IDF’s forward posts and operations in southern Lebanon have further prevented Hezbollah from regaining a foothold in the border villages, many of which remain depopulated.

Another factor weakening Hezbollah’s regional power is the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria last December, which severed a critical weapons-smuggling corridor from Iran. More recently, when Israel launched a campaign against Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure last month, Hezbollah remained conspicuously silent.

According to Israeli intelligence, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declined multiple Iranian requests to join the conflict — a stunning departure from the group’s usual posturing as Tehran’s loyal proxy.

“There is low confidence inside Hezbollah. They sense the danger of making a move now,” said one IDF official.

For the first time in years, the calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament are no longer just coming from Israel. Inside Lebanon, especially among the country’s Western-backed government, voices are growing louder demanding that the group give up its weapons and return control of the border to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

Israel has filed 1,280 complaints of ceasefire violations with an international oversight committee chaired by the United States and including Lebanon, France, and the UN. Of the 670 violations passed to the LAF for enforcement, only 456 were addressed.

Still, Israeli officials concede that the LAF has improved its responsiveness. “Not fast enough,” said one senior official, “but it’s progress.”

The IDF has said it will maintain its presence at five key outposts in southern Lebanon — all near the Israeli border — until Hezbollah is fully disarmed.

Still, some 26% of Israeli residents displaced from the north remain hesitant to return, especially in towns like Metula and Manara, where rocket fire once rained down daily.

The IDF continues to strike Hezbollah targets far beyond the south, including Beirut’s underground drone factories, Radwan training camps in the Beqaa Valley, and weapons convoys traveling north of the Litani River.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)