“We will never let terror win,” Danon warned the UN after revealing evidence of the Lebanese army’s role in guarding Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure.
By The Algemeiner and World Israel News Staff
On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council held a special session on Hezbollah’s violation of Resolution 1701, and specifically the terror group’s cross-border attack tunnels that were exposed by the IDF as part of Israel’s Operation Northern Shield.
At the session, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon revealed to the Security Council members an aerial photograph of a “private compound” in Kfar Kila, about 80 meters from the Blue Line, which separates Israel and Lebanon
This was the location from which an underground attack tunnel crossed into Israel, not far from a UNIFIL observation post.
Danon commented on the discovery, “Israel gave UNIFIL precise information about the location of the tunnel. After UNIFIL told the Lebanese army, [the UN force] was then stopped when it tried to reach the area. Sources within the Lebanese army informed Hezbollah about the information, which enabled the terrorist organization to conceal the tunnel’s operations and thwart Israel’s defensive actions.”
“Lebanese army officials are working for Hezbollah, while UNIFIL is not working to fulfill its mandate in the region in the necessary manner,” added Danon.
Danon continued, “Let me be abundantly clear — Hezbollah’s activities are a flagrant and unacceptable violation of Security Council Resolution 1701 and the ‘Blue Line.’ They also violate the UN Charter and international law.”
Danon explained, “Hezbollah has built a terror base inside a civilian population, with its end on the Israeli side of the border, all financed by Iran. This not only a clear violation of Resolution 1701, but Hezbollah also uses Lebanese civilians as human shields.”
“If Hezbollah will have the arrogance to attack Israel, we will bury it in the rubble of Lebanon,” Danon warned. “We will never let terror win.”
“The international community must condemn Hezbollah in the strongest terms and stand by Israel’s self-defensive measures,” he continued. “It is the expectation that Lebanon will eliminate these terror tunnels and prevent the building of future attack tunnels that threaten Israel.”
Danon spoke after his Lebanese counterpart, Amal Mudallali, condemned Israel in her own remarks to the council over what she described as a continuing array of encroachments on her country’s sovereignty.
Addressing Mudallali directly, Danon accused her of representing “a government that allows Iran and its proxies to turn Lebanon into a launching pad for terror.”
“If Hezbollah will have the arrogance to attack Israel, we will bury it in the rubble of Lebanon,” Danon warned. “We will never let terror win.”
‘US strongly supports Israel’s efforts’
Addressing the same gathering, Rodney Hunter — the political coordinator of the US Mission to the UN — said, “The United States strongly supports Israel’s efforts to defend its sovereignty and unconditionally affirms Israel’s right to self-defense. We call on President Michel Aoun and the Lebanese government to undertake all possible efforts to halt Hezbollah’s illicit tunneling into Israel and to ensure that there is no escalation of tensions or violence. This includes President Aoun directing the Lebanese Armed Forces to act promptly to investigate the suspected starting points of the tunnels.”
Hunter also emphasized that UNIFIL must “take all necessary measures to ensure that its area of operations is not used for hostile activities and to ensure that these tunnels do not pose a threat to peace and security.” Toward that end, he noted, UNIFIL needed to be “provided all possible relevant information regarding, and full access to, the suspected tunnel locations in southern Lebanon.”
Furthermore, Hunter added, “we also call on Iran and its agents to stop their aggressive behavior and provocation in the region, which pose an unacceptable threat to Israeli and regional security.”
In comments to reporters in Israel ahead of Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Hezbollah is a tool of Iran. Both are committed to our destruction. They use criminal methods, illegal methods, war criminal methods, commit war crimes against our civilians, and they commit war crimes against Lebanon’s civilians. The Lebanese government, which should be the first to challenge this and to protest this, is doing nothing at best and colluding at worst. That’s the truth. That has to be exposed, condemned and acted against. And there is no way to do that with a blanket of silence.”
Israel and Hezbollah last fought a war in 2006. Since that 33-day summer conflict, which resulted in the passage of Security Council Resolution 1701, the border has remained largely quiet, with the exception of a few brief violent flare-ups.