JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense minister on Friday hailed the capture of a strategic ridge from Hezbollah as solidifying Israel’s “security zone” in Lebanon and vowed that troops would not leave it.

“The capture of the Ali Al-Taher 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.

Israel’s military has cleared Hezbollah fighters holed up in tunnels under the ridge, Katz said, though the Iran-backed group did not immediately comment.

Israel had said Hezbollah fighters were embedded in tunnels under the ridge, which overlooks a wide area and had become one of the most hotly contested areas in the Israel-Hezbollah war, despite a ceasefire announced in June.

Israel says that Hezbollah used the strategic high point to fire at Israeli targets and had constructed there a vast network of tunnels housing a command structure.

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.

Netanyahu on Thursday night said that the Ali Al-Taher ridge “no longer threatens us.”

He said the ridge was used to threaten the northern Israeli settlements of Kiryat Shmona and Metula and was positioned as part of Hezbollah’s plans to potentially invade the Galilee.

“We instructed the IDF (Israeli army) to clear it … they did tremendous work there,” Netanyahu said in a video message.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since early March when the militant group dragged Lebanon into the wider Middle East war by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah 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 Israel and Lebanon’s government agreed in June, but the deal between Tehran and Washington has been shaky, with US forces this week resuming attacks on Iran.

– with Reuters