On the eve of a UN Security Council session over Hezbollah’s tunnels at the request of the United States and Israel, the Israeli army announced on Tuesday that the party’s members had tried in recent days to block a tunnel path uncovered by Israel and started a campaign to block all their tunnels before they are discovered.
Israeli sources said that they would unveil new details about Hezbollah’s activities in southern Lebanon at the Security Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, pointing to many alleged violations by the Lebanese side of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
A statement by the military spokesman in Tel Aviv noted that Israeli army experts, who documented the four tunnels discovered under the border between Lebanon and Israel, made a comparison with tunnels dug by Hamas and militant groups along the border with the Gaza Strip and found significant differences. Thus, they stressed that Hezbollah was working in a more qualitative and professional manner, indicating that the party benefitted from the experience of a state, in a clear hint at Iran.
The Israeli army added that the four tunnels discovered so far since the start of the “North Shield” operation earlier this month, have crossed the border with Lebanon into the territories occupied by Israel, but did not pose a threat to settlements in the north.
Although the UNIFIL forces confirmed in a statement that only two of these tunnels crossed the border with Israel, the latter welcomed the statement, describing it as “an important political achievement, especially as it comes ahead of the special discussion that will be conducted at the UN Security Council today on the issue of [Hezbollah’s] tunnels.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesman allowed CNN for the first time to broadcast pictures from a tunnel recently uncovered. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin conducted visits to the site.
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