Jerusalem: The Israeli military says it has launched an operation meant to “expose and thwart” tunnels built by the Hezbollah militant group and stretching from Lebanon into northern Israel.
The military says the tunnels are not operational and that its work to expose them, which began on Tuesday, was taking place in Israeli territory.
But the operation could send tensions soaring between Israel and its Iranian-backed foe, who have both been preoccupied with other conflicts since their last conflagration more than a decade ago.
“We see Hezbollah’s activities as a flagrant and blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman. “This activity is another example of the negative effects of Iranian entrenchment in the region.”
The military did not disclose how many tunnels snake into Israeli territory from Lebanon, how long the operation would last nor what tools it was using to deal with the threat. It has spent years attempting to tackle a network of tunnels snaking from the Gaza Strip into Israel and has used a variety of methods to destroy tunnels and prevent them from being rebuilt.
Conricus said that Hezbollah has been developing an offensive plan against Israel that would “shift the battleground into Israel.” The group would use firepower and ground units and “the surprise component of that plan was supposed to be tunnels that would allow infiltrators into Israel.”
Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald (AP).