Israel says fourth Hezbollah tunnel found near Lebanon border
Israel says the tunnel is under its control and does not pose a threat to Israelis anymore.
The Israeli army said it had found a fourth cross-border tunnel allegedly dug by Lebanese group Hezbollah along the border with Israel.
In a statement on Sunday, the army said the tunnel was “under the army’s control and does not pose a threat anymore”.
“The tunnel was blown up just as what happened to the previous tunnels, and anyone who enters it from Lebanese territory would be in danger,” the statement said.
The Israeli army said the new tunnel is the fourth to be found along the border with Lebanon since Israel launched a military operation earlier this month to “expose” and “thwart” tunnels allegedly dug by Hezbollah.
There was no comment from Hezbollah on the Israeli announcement.
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday he saw no risk to peace from Israel’s military operation against the tunnels.
“We certainly took this issue seriously – the presence of tunnels at the border – and Israel informed us via the United States that it does not have aggressive intentions and it will continue to work on its (territory),” Aoun said.
“We also do not have aggressive intentions, and so there is no danger to peace in this [Israeli] operation … We are ready to remove the causes of the dispute, but after we obtain a final report and we set out the matters that need to be dealt with,” he told a news conference.
Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s speaker of parliament, said on December 5 that Israel provided no evidence of the existence of cross-border attack tunnels, a day after Tel Aviv launched the military operation.
Berri, a political ally of the armed group Hezbollah, said Lebanon had asked for the geographic coordinates of the tunnels from Israel but did not get them.
In 2006, Israel launched a war against Hezbollah during which at least 1,200 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, were killed.