IDF Strikes Hezbollah Infrastructure Disguised as Environmental Project Near Mazraat Sinay

By: Fern Sidman

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced late Wednesday that it had conducted a series of precision airstrikes targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, focusing on areas near the village of Mazraat Sinay, long known as a strategic hub for the Iranian-backed terror organization. According to military officials, the strikes were aimed at preventing Hezbollah from restoring its operational capabilities under the guise of civilian reconstruction and environmental activity.

Among the targets hit was a quarry used by Hezbollah to produce concrete—a seemingly innocuous enterprise that, according to the IDF, served as a front for rebuilding military installations destroyed during last year’s cross-border clashes. The strikes, which were carried out by Israeli fighter jets overnight, underscore Israel’s continuing effort to thwart Hezbollah’s rearmament campaign and disrupt its expanding military entrenchment across southern Lebanon.

In a statement released Thursday morning, the IDF confirmed that the operation was based on intelligence gathered over recent months, showing that Hezbollah had begun reconstructing tunnels, fortified positions, and surveillance posts that were systematically dismantled during Israeli operations in 2024.

“The targets struck were being used by Hezbollah to restore its terror capabilities in southern Lebanon,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said. “One of the sites, a quarry in the Mazraat Sinay area, was producing concrete to rebuild facilities destroyed in previous fighting. Another was operated under the cover of an environmental organization, ‘Green Without Borders,’ which has been exposed as a Hezbollah front.”

The quarry in Mazraat Sinay, the IDF said, had been reactivated shortly after Hezbollah announced what it termed a “civil rehabilitation campaign” in the south—purportedly aimed at rebuilding infrastructure damaged during the previous year’s conflict. Yet, Israeli intelligence determined that the facility was in fact producing reinforced concrete slabs and prefabricated components for new command posts, observation towers, and tunnel entrances.

“Every ton of concrete poured there was meant to reinforce Hezbollah’s military network,” one Israeli defense official told reporters. “They were rebuilding not homes, but bunkers.”

The airstrikes, conducted in the early hours of Wednesday morning, were described as surgical and highly localized, avoiding civilian casualties while ensuring the destruction of critical components of Hezbollah’s infrastructure. Local reports in Lebanon confirmed large explosions near Mazraat Sinay and nearby hilltops, but Hezbollah media channels, as of Thursday evening, remained silent on the extent of the damage.

The IDF’s intelligence directorate said the group’s ongoing reconstruction efforts reveal how Hezbollah continues to embed its military operations within civilian sectors—a pattern long documented by both Israeli and international observers. “Hezbollah is exploiting reconstruction efforts as camouflage for restoring its terror infrastructure,” the IDF said in its official communique.

Perhaps the most significant revelation from the latest strikes involves the targeting of a site associated with “Green Without Borders,” an ostensibly environmental NGO that the IDF and Western intelligence agencies have long accused of acting as a proxy for Hezbollah’s southern command.

According to the IDF, the organization’s activities—ostensibly focused on forest conservation and reforestation—mask a sophisticated network of observation posts, surveillance towers, and logistics sites positioned along the Israeli border.

“The site had been used to conceal terror activity for the purpose of restoring Hezbollah’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon under a civilian guise,” the IDF said.

“Green Without Borders” was first identified by Israel in 2017 as a Hezbollah-affiliated entity. Since then, it has constructed dozens of outposts near the Blue Line, the U.N.-demarcated boundary separating Israel and Lebanon. Though the group claims its mission is environmental, Israeli intelligence and U.N. observers have documented armed men in military fatigues operating from its compounds, often conducting surveillance on Israeli positions.

An internal IDF analysis shared with foreign journalists last year detailed how the group’s “environmental projects” facilitated smuggling routes, communications relays, and the movement of fighters—all in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which prohibits Hezbollah military activity south of the Litani River.

By targeting one of these “Green Without Borders” sites this week, the IDF sought not only to disrupt Hezbollah’s reconstruction efforts but also to send a message about the group’s systematic exploitation of civilian fronts. “This is part of Hezbollah’s playbook,” said a senior Israeli military analyst. “They use schools, clinics, and environmental NGOs as cover for their war machine.”

The latest airstrikes mark one of the most significant Israeli operations in Lebanon since the escalation of border tensions earlier this year, when Hezbollah increased its rocket and drone attacks in solidarity with Hamas amid the Gaza conflict. While cross-border fire has subsided in recent months, Israeli officials maintain that Hezbollah continues to prepare for a potential larger confrontation, rebuilding storage depots, rocket launch pads, and underground facilities destroyed during the 2024 campaign.

Residents of Israel’s northern communities have reported sporadic exchanges of fire in recent weeks, though none matching the intensity of last winter’s clashes. Still, IDF sources told journalists that the strikes near Mazraat Sinay were part of a broader strategy of deterrence, designed to preempt any renewed threat before it materializes.

“We are not waiting for Hezbollah to attack,” one senior officer told Israel’s Channel 12. “We are acting on intelligence to disrupt and degrade their capacity before it can endanger our citizens.”

According to IDF Northern Command assessments, Hezbollah has lost significant operational capabilities over the past year but remains intent on restoring them. Israeli analysts estimate that the group’s southern Lebanon network once included over 600 fortified positions and observation points, many of which were destroyed in repeated Israeli strikes since late 2023.

The Mazraat Sinay quarry, officials said, was a key logistical link in that reconstruction chain. “They’re not just mixing concrete—they’re rebuilding a threat,” the officer said.

As of Thursday, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Lebanese government have issued no formal response to the strikes, reflecting the uneasy equilibrium that has defined Beirut’s relationship with Hezbollah. The LAF, constrained by domestic politics and limited capability, has largely refrained from confronting the militant organization’s violations of Resolution 1701.

Meanwhile, UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) acknowledged reports of explosions near Mazraat Sinay but did not assign blame. “UNIFIL is aware of the incidents and is in contact with both parties to de-escalate the situation,” the mission said in a brief statement.

Privately, several Western diplomats told reporters that Hezbollah’s use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes continues to be a major concern. “Israel’s claims about Green Without Borders have been repeatedly substantiated,” said one European envoy based in Beirut. “The line between civilian and military activity in southern Lebanon has been deliberately blurred by Hezbollah.”

Military experts in Jerusalem view the strikes as part of a broader Israeli campaign to enforce the post-2024 deterrence equilibrium. The IDF’s recent operations in both Gaza and Lebanon reflect a shift toward “intelligence-led precision disruption”—a strategy emphasizing targeted, preemptive strikes over large-scale warfare.

“These are not retaliatory raids,” said Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ram Ben-Barak, a former deputy chief of Mossad. “They are proactive measures designed to keep Hezbollah in a state of operational paralysis.”

Hezbollah, for its part, has sought to portray itself as undeterred. Lebanese media affiliated with the group reported “limited damage” from the strikes and claimed that the sites targeted were “non-military.” However, video footage circulating on Lebanese social media Thursday morning showed columns of smoke rising from the Mazraat Sinay hills, contradicting Hezbollah’s denials.

For now, the northern border remains tense but stable. Yet Israeli defense officials acknowledge that the situation could deteriorate rapidly if Hezbollah retaliates. The IDF’s Northern Command has reportedly reinforced air-defense batteries and ground patrols across the Galilee, while intelligence monitoring continues around the clock.

“Southern Lebanon has become a construction site for Hezbollah’s next war,” one senior intelligence officer told Haaretz. “Our mission is to make sure that war never happens.”

In Jerusalem, policymakers echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that Israel will continue to strike at any Hezbollah asset masquerading as civilian infrastructure. “There can be no safe haven for terror—not behind NGOs, not behind environmental projects, and not under the cover of reconstruction,” an Israeli government spokesman said.

As the dust settled over Mazraat Sinay, one thing became clear: Hezbollah’s attempt to rebuild its power under the cloak of civilian activity will not go unanswered. And Israel, facing a volatile northern frontier and a still-unfinished conflict in Gaza, appears determined to keep the pressure on—using intelligence, precision, and preemption as its tools of deterrence.

The quarry may have been reduced to rubble, but the message—like the echo of the strike itself—resonates far beyond the hills of southern Lebanon: Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its war machine, no matter what name it hides behind.