Israel says located second ‘Hezbollah’ tunnel from Lebanon
JERUSALEM: Israel’s army said Saturday it had located another tunnel crossing into its territory from Lebanon, the second such find since launching an operation to expose and destroy alleged Hezbollah ‘attack tunnels’.
“The IDF has located an additional Hezbollah crossborder attack tunnel,” spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, refusing to give details on its precise location or dimensions.
“The tunnel crosses into Israel, like the first tunnel it is not yet operational and does not pose an imminent threat to Israeli communities,” he said in a briefing with journalists.
On Tuesday, the army launched an operation dubbed ‘Northern Shield’ to destroy tunnels it said were dug under the border by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, sharing images of one found near the Israeli town of Metula.
Conricus said Saturday that the army had placed explosives in the newly exposed tunnel to prevent its use as a means to infiltrate Israel, but had not yet destroyed it.
He said the Israeli military had issued warnings in Arabic to residents of southern Lebanon to stay away.
Following the army’s announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation to track the tunnels ‘is in its beginning’.
“We’ll continue to act till its completion,” he said in a statement.
Conricus said the military was aware of a third tunnel leading from south Lebanon into Israel.
Despite not having its exact location, he said Israel asked UNIFIL, the UN mission monitoring the border region, to ‘take action and block the tunnel on the Lebanese side’.
The announcement of the new find came after Israeli soldiers on Saturday opened fire at what they perceived to be three ‘Hezbollah activists’ approaching the border near Yiftah, south of Metula, where the army was carrying out engineering work. — AFP