Dec. 9 (UPI) — The Israeli military on Saturday said it found a tunnel dug by Hezbollah from Lebanon, the second such passage discovered in a week.
Israel Defense Forces accused the militant group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, of planning to use the tunnel for violence.
“Our troops just exposed a SECOND attack tunnel that Hezbollah dug from Lebanon into Israel,” the IDF said on Twitter. “Hezbollah planned to use this tunnel to carry out an attack against Israeli civilians. We won’t let them.”
Israel said it placed explosives inside the tunnel.
“Anyone who enters the tunnel does so at their own risk,” the IDF tweeted.
On Thursday, military officials said it found a similar tunnel dug from the Lebanese village of Ramyeh under the border. They did not reveal the location of the tunnel found Saturday.
Israeli Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick said Thursday he’s asked the United Nations for help destroying the tunnel. He’s started an operation called Northern Shield, created to root out the tunnel and others like it.
Northern Command officers said they believe it’ll take weeks to find all the tunnels and destroy them. They believe they can find the group’s entire tunnel network.
The IDF said “the tunnels serve as proof of Hezbollah’s blatant violation of Israel’s sovereignty.”
Some former Israeli military officials and opposition figures have accused Netanyahu of exaggerating the operation, giving the impression it’s an offensive campaign.
