The Israeli army fears that Hezbollah will establish a network of tunnels more advanced than those of Hamas in Gaza, despite the passage of 5 years since Operation Northern Shield.
Israel is witnessing many discussions about Hezbollah’s tunnels, after the army revealed last week a large Hamas tunnel near the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip, according to the Jerusalem Post newspaper on Monday.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted the commander of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, Major General Uri Gordin, as saying that information about the extent of the threat from Hezbollah’s tunnels will not be withheld.
Gordin said that the Israeli army “is working to determine the location of any Hezbollah infrastructure above or below ground, and if any of these places are identified, we will not keep it secret.”
On December 18, the day after the discovery of the Hamas tunnel near the Erez crossing, the Alma Research Center asked, “If these are Hamas’ capabilities, then what are Hezbollah’s capabilities in building strategic tunnels?”
Maariv newspaper said that Hezbollah sought expertise from North Korea to develop and build a strategic tunnel network.
The Alma Center said in July 2021: “In our estimation, after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah, with the help of the North Koreans and Iranians, established a project to form a network of Lebanese tunnels, much larger than the Hamas metro,” noting that “Hamas used Korean and Iranian expertise.” Also to build its tunnels.”
In May 2021, the Kan channel published a report about a tunnel supposedly extending from Beirut to southern Lebanon.
Israeli reports say that part of the Hezbollah tunnel threat was previously known, and on this basis Israel chose to postpone an operation against Gaza in the fall of 2018, to work against the tunnel threat on the northern border.
Last week, the IDF said: “Since the beginning of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF forces have discovered approximately 1,500 tunnel openings.”
The newspaper says, Hezbollah was generally more developed than Hamas. However, the October 7 attack revealed the capabilities of Hamas and led to raising many questions about the capabilities of the pro-Iranian party.
2023-12-25 17:07:03
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