On Wednesday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) uncovered a fifth cross-border attack tunnel originating from Lebanon into Israel, since beginning its operation to abolish the Hezbollah-dug tunnels.
In a statement, the IDF said: “a short while ago, the tunnel was neutralised by an explosion”, the tunnel was found “a number of days ago” but has now been demolished.
It was reported that the fifth tunnel was dug from Ayta ash Shab, a village across the border from the Israeli farming community of Shtula, and entered Israeli territory.
The IDF stated: “this is another blatant violation of UN Resolution 1701 and of Israeli sovereignty”. The UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL said last week that at least two of the tunnels crossed into Israel and were a violation of the UN resolution that concluded the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Operation Northern Shield was launched earlier this month to find the tunnels. The IDF say the tunnels are designed to allow Hezbollah to launch a surprise attack and infiltrate “entire battalions” into Israel. The military state that they launched the operation to destroy the tunnels, before they became fully operational and a threat to civilian communities.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was close to completing the mission to locate and remove the tunnels.
