Israel Denies Discovering Hizbullah Tunnels along Border

Israel expressed concern recently that Hizbullah might be using smuggling tunnels in the Jewish state's north similar to those build by Hamas in the south, media reports said on Tuesday.

However, the head of the Israeli Northern Command, Major General Yair Golan, assured that these tunnels, if they exist, don't pose a threat along the frontier with Lebanon as reports remain baseless.

“At the moment there are no known attack tunnels coming from Lebanon," Israeli websites quoted Golan as saying.

Hizbullah, according to recent reports, might have been constructing the required tunnel infrastructure in South Lebanon to carry out attacks against Israel.

Golan claimed that “missiles and Iranian constructed rockets still pose a greater threat on the northern front than the possibility of smuggling tunnels being built to infiltrate northern towns and kibbutzim.”

The Israeli official stressed that Hizbullah “tunnels were not at the moment a primary threat,” pointing out that the Israeli army “will be prepared to confront such a threat if necessary,” in particular after the Operation of Protective Edge.

Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on Gaza on July 8 to stop rocket attacks on its territory and later expanded it with a ground offensive to destroy a network of attack tunnels.

The conflict has now killed more than 1,900 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side, almost all soldiers.

The Israeli official claimed that the army destroyed a total of 32 tunnels along the Gaza border.

H.K.

G.K.