Israeli forces plan to destroy Hezbollah tunnels from within Lebanese territory - report

Earlier in the day, the Israeli Defence Forces tweeted that they were launching an operation to “expose and neutralise cross-border” tunnels that Hezbollah used to attack Israel from Lebanese soil.

Having announced the beginning of Operation Northern Shield on Tuesday morning, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said that the military had discovered Hezbollah tunnels, with one of them being dug from a private home in Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon.

“Some actions will be more precise and some less. At this point we are operating within Israeli territory to seize the tunnels… in the future, these tunnels may be destroyed from other locations”, he told reporters.

According to the spokesman, it took some two years to build the tunnel under the house that stretches about 200 metres, 40 of which are within Israel’s territory.

The military said that in the aftermath of the 2014 Gaza war, Israel realised that there was an “underground threat” that was to be eliminated:

“Two teams are created: one in the south, which has so far exposed some 17 tunnels, and another on the Northern Command, which operated under the assumption that if there are tunnels in the south, it is likely there are [tunnels] in the north”.

Manelis went on to say that Israel had warned Lebanon and the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon that anyone who approached the area of the operation, was putting himself in peril.

Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF announced the launch of the operation on Twitter:

According to Haaretz, the Israeli military has been aware of Hezbollah’s plans to build tunnels along the Israel-Lebanon border in order to carry out attacks against the Jewish state since the 2006 Lebanon War and has been trying to map them since 2014.

The Israeli campaign was kicked off shortly after Hezbollah uploaded a video to YouTube, warning Israel against launching missile strikes on Lebanon and threatening retaliation.