There were conflicting reports from Lebanese and Palestinian sources regarding the cause of the deadly explosion.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel has denied reports that its air force had carried out an airstrike overnight at the Lebanon-Syria that killed five members of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and damaged the group’s terror tunnels.

“The attack took place around 1:30 a.m. in an area that serves as an entry point to a complex network of tunnels used by the PFLP  General Command, connecting Syria and Lebanon,” Al-Jazeera reported.

“There were conflicting reports from Lebanese and Palestinian sources that the blast was a result of an old rocket going off in an arms depot or mines exploding while they were being moved,” the report said.

In an official statement, PFLP headquarters claimed that “in order to improve its public image and deterrence, the Zionist enemy attacked a military outpost in Qousaya, and as a result, five of our men were killed.”

PFLP identified the casualties as Commander Emad Kadour, Commander Khaled al-Hamesh, Shadi al-Boush, Wasim Khalil and Muhammad Nimr.

Lebanon-based PFLP official Abu Wael Issam vowed retaliation against Israel “at the right time.” The incident, he said, would not discourage his group from “escalating the fight against the Zionist enemy.”

According to blogger Abu Ali Express, “the Popular Front General Command has a strong relationship with Hezbollah and the Assad regime.

“In addition to the five casualties, seven others were injured in the attack, which resulted in a deep hole in one of the entrances to the tunnel network.

“Israel targeted the site previously in 2019.”

That year, Israel discovered six terror tunnels, which the IDF destroyed in what was dubbed Operation Northern Shield.

Hezbollah has not commented on the explosion.

Israeli officials have insisted there was no IDF attack on the Syrian-Lebanese border targeting the terrorist organization.

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Under the motto “To Jerusalem on millions of motocross bikes,” upwards of 50 Hezbollah supporters rode motocross bikes along Lebanon’s border with Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

On Sunday, supporters of Hezbollah gathered near the Lebanese border to profess their support for the terror group and declare their willingness to assist in attacking the Jewish state via a group motorcycle ride visible from Israel.

Lebanon’s Daily Star reported on the event, during which Hezbollah supporters rode motocross bikes. The Daily Star claimed Hezbollah has used this type of off-road motorcycle in “resistance operations.” Within the world of Islamic terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the term “resistance” frequently refers to attacks on innocent civilians.

“We’re ready if you ask,” a rider from Sunday’s rally told the Daily Star, according to the Jerusalem Post. “If you want us on [motocross] bikes, we’re at your service.”

The biker explained that ride, organized under the motto “to Jerusalem on millions of motocross bikes,” was designed to demonstrate support for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah’s activities along Lebanon’s border have broken international law and include constructing cross-border terror tunnels that the group intended to use in attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel discovered and destroyed the tunnels as part of Operation Northern Shield at the beginning of the year.

The terror group is bankrolled by millions of dollars in aid from Iran, in addition to the vast international narcotics trafficking operation it oversees.

Hezbollah is committed to Israel’s destruction and has amassed an arsenal of around 150,000 missiles in the last decade, in violation of the terms that brought the Second Lebanon War to a close in 2006.

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In a television interview, the Hezbollah leader tried to divert attention from reported health problems and scandal to tout the organization’s prowess.

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has suffered a “great humiliation” as a result of Israel’s “immense success” in Operation Northern Shield.

“His people invested great effort in digging [cross-border attack tunnels], and within three weeks we totally took away that weapon from them,” added Netanyahu at the Israeli cabinet’s weekly meeting on Sunday.

Breaking a prolonged silence on Saturday, Nasrallah confirmed the IDF’s operation against the tunnels from Lebanon but said that it did not affect the terror organization’s ability to attack Israel.

The Nasrallah interview aired on Hezbollah’s own television channel, Al-Mayadeen. It followed reports that he was ill, either with cancer or having suffered a heart attack, and that he was under house arrest by Iran facing demands to disclose the whereabouts of “tens of millions of dollars” allegedly embezzled from Hezbollah bank accounts funded by Tehran.

Hezbollah promised a weekend appearance by their leader and they delivered. Nasrallah reacted publicly for the first time to the Israeli military operation along the Lebanese border against attack tunnels.

He said that the tunnels were old and that the Israelis had failed in that it took the IDF so long to discover them. “The Israelis discovered a number of tunnels after many years, and it’s not a surprise. The surprise is that they took some time to find [them].”

“Some of the tunnels are from before Resolution 1701 and the Second Lebanon War,” he said, referring to the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and the U.N. Security Council decision that ended it. The resolution says that the sides shall not cross the Blue Line, the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel, and orders Hezbollah to leave the area around the frontier.

Nasrallah smiled smugly as he said: “One of the tunnels discovered in recent weeks is 13 or 14 years old.” He also contradicted the Israeli assertion that all the tunnels had been located.

He denied that the terror’s organization’s capabilities had been hurt significantly by the Israeli action to neutralize the tunnels: “The uncovering of the tunnels does not affect by 10 percent our plans to take over the Galilee. If we decide to do it, even if they’ve destroyed the tunnels, can’t we rebuild them?”

‘To enter the Galilee, you do not need tunnels’

“Part of our plan for the next war is to enter the Galilee… To enter the Galilee, you do not need tunnels,” Nasrallah told Al-Mayadeen.

He added that all of Israel would be the battlefield and repeated that Hezbollah had precision-guided rockets that could strike deep into the country.

“In any war that happens, all of ‘occupied Palestine’ will be a war and battlefield,” he vowed.

He told the interviewers in a tongue-in-cheek manner that Hezbollah’s possession of precision-guided rockets was to Israel’s advantage.

“It’s better because if the day comes that we want to respond to Tel Aviv, if I have a precision missile, I will hit a military site. But if I don’t have a precision missile, I will want to hit a military site, but I will be off by 500 or 1000 meters. Where will it land? On people,” said Nasrallah.

Nasrallah claimed that Hezbollah would act only in response to an Israeli attack.

“If the Israeli enemy bombarded targets in the Lebanese lands, undertook a security operation in Lebanese land, carried out an assassination in Lebanese land…[or] killed anyone from Hezbollah in Syria…we consider that an assault and we will respond,” he said.

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U.S. citizen Colin Emery, who is believed to be Jewish, was detained in Lebanon after crossing over the border on Monday.

By Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom via JNS.org

Hezbollah’s Al Manar satellite network has identified an individual who crossed the Israeli border into Lebanon on Monday as U.S. citizen Colin Emery.

According to Lebanese news reports, Emery is an American Jew. Lebanese officials informed the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon of the incident and are currently in talks with Washington, the reports said.

Emery was reportedly transferred to the custody of Lebanese intelligence agents by the commander of Hezbollah’s intelligence unit in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese military confirmed security and intelligence forces were holding a U.S. citizen by the name of Colin Emery.

Underpinning heightened tensions and the complex reality along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces’ troops on Tuesday discovered a hole in the security fence and footprints leading into Lebanon.

The IDF has launched a comprehensive investigation in an effort to understand how someone could cross from Israel into Lebanon undetected.

Initially, Arab media outlets reported that Lebanese army units had been scrambled to the border area after a man was spotted carrying documents in Hebrew. They said a mentally unstable individual was being detained while attempting to purchase a change of clothes and was being held in the village of Ayta ash-Shab, near the Israeli border.

Earlier this week, the IDF declared it was ending “Operation Northern Shield” targeting Hezbollah’s cross-border attack tunnels. Altogether, six tunnels were discovered and neutralized during the operation, and information about additional tunnels was transferred to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL.

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“We are determined more than ever to take action against Iran in Syria,” the prime minister declared at the beginning of the Sunday cabinet meeting.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

At the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Syrian media reports over the weekend accusing Israel of bombing their capital’s airport.

“Just in the last 36 hours, the air force attacked Iranian warehouses with Iranian weapons at the international airport in Damascus,” the prime minister stated. “The accumulation of recent attacks proves that we are determined more than ever to take action against Iran in Syria, just as we promised.”

The Syrians filed a formal complaint Saturday with the United Nations Security Council over the attack on a “Ministry of Transport warehouse” at the Damascus airport late Friday night. Netanyahu clarified that the airstrike was part and parcel of the Jewish state’s ongoing efforts to stop Iran’s military from setting up a permanent presence in close proximity to Israel.

The prime minister was speaking in the context of thanking retiring Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot for all his success in leading the IDF action against the Iranian threat.

“The IDF – under your command – worked with exceptional cooperation with all of the security arms – the ISA, Mossad, Israel Police and other bodies,” Netanyahu said. “We worked with impressive success to block Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria. In this framework, the IDF attacked Iranian and Hezbollah targets hundreds of times.

“We worked together against the manufacture of precision weapons in Lebanon,” Netanyahu continued. “We worked to dismantle Hezbollah’s tunnels weapon in Lebanon, in Operation Northern Shield. We took action against Hamas tunnels on the Gaza border. We thwarted hundreds of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria and we carried out very many other actions, open and covert. The IDF has major achievements under your command. We yet have much work to do and we will do it.”

In fact, the IDF uncovered and demolished the sixth Hezbollah attack  tunnel on Saturday afternoon, after which it announced completion of Operation Northern Shield.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights publicized on Saturday that “two areas hosting military positions of Iranian forces and the [Iranian-backed] Lebanese Hezbollah movement” had been the targets, with the Hezbollah site being missile depots in the Al-Kiswah neighborhood of the capital.

Syrian military sources told the SANA news agency that the country’s air defenses had intercepted many of the missiles launched towards Damascus “and downed most of them.” Despite their alleged success, the foreign ministry still turned to the U.N. to accuse Israel of being “no different” than the Islamic extremist organizations fighting the Syrian regime in their years-long civil war, and even stated that Israel had a “joint agenda” with those terrorists.

Syria also accused the United States of helping Israel and of being guilty by association.

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With sixth Hezbollah tunnel discovered Saturday afternoon, Israel declared victory and announced the completion of Operation Northern Shield on Sunday. 

By David Isaac, World Israel News

With the sixth Hezbollah tunnel discovered Saturday afternoon, Israel declared victory and announced the completion of Operation Northern Shield on Sunday.

The tunnel, the second discovered coming from the Lebanese town of Ramieh, went 180 feet deep and crossed 2,624 feet of Lebanese territory and dozens of yards into Israel. Israel reported the tunnel’s discovery to UNIFIL, the U.N. observer force responsible for ensuring that southern Lebanon remains free of hostile forces. The tunnel wasn’t operational or a threat to Israel’s citizens, Israel’s military says.

“We have now exposed all attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces tweeted on Sunday.

The Army said, “In the coming days we’ll investigate the new tunnel and carry out actions to neutralize it. In tandem we’ll seize a number of locations in Lebanese territory from which Hezbollah digs tunnels that have not yet crossed into Israel.

“We’ll continue our engineering actions along the border and tracking Hezbollah’s underground activities. There is no underground infrastructure now that allows crossing from Lebanon into Israel. We’ll remain fully in the north despite the operation’s completion in order to work in the region.”

The IDF also said that the “operation stripped from Hezbollah the unique offensive ability that it had built for years as part of an attack plan into Israeli territory that it wanted to conduct to create emergency situations.”

The Army reiterated that it held Lebanon responsible for all activities that took place in its territory and thanked the residents of Israel’s north for helping it achieve the operation’s goals.

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“This #Hezbollah attack tunnel was dug from the Lebanese village of Ramyeh into Israel & will be neutralized soon. We have now exposed all attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel,” the IDF announced Sunday on Twitter.

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“The decision by the president on Syria in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel,” Pompeo told Netanyahu.

By JNS

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised that the United States would stand by its commitment to Israel’s security amid a planned withdrawal of American forces from Syria.

“The decision by the president on Syria in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel,” Pompeo told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint press conference prior to their meeting in Brazil, where the two men are attending the inauguration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement late last month that he would be removing some 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, some Israeli officials and experts have expressed concern that the pullout would embolden its regional foes such as Iran, Turkey and Russia, while putting the Jewish state’s own security at risk. The U.S. forces in Syria are part of an effort to defeat the Islamic State terror group in the country.

“The counter-IS campaign continues, our efforts to counter Iranian aggression continues, and our commitment to Middle East stability and the protection of Israel continues in the same way it did before that decision was made. So we have a lot to talk about today.

“We will work closely together to make sure we get this right,” said Pompeo.

On Monday, it was reported that Trump would gradually pull U.S. troops out of Syria over a four-month period. Earlier reports suggested that Netanyahu had asked Trump to stagger his planned withdrawal from Syria.

Additionally, Pompeo expressed support for Israel’s “Operation Northern Shield,” which was launched in early December to find and destroy Hezbollah tunnels under the Lebanese-Israeli border. So far Israel has found and destroyed five Hezbollah tunnels.

“We understand the threat that violation of Israeli sovereignty presents to the region and the country, that threat from Iranian Hezbollah,” said Pompeo.

Netanyahu said that he will discuss with Pompeo the U.S. pullout from Syria, as well as cooperation on blocking Iranian aggression.

“We’re going to discuss the intense cooperation between Israel and the United States, which will also deal with the questions following the decision, the American decisions on Syria—on how to intensify even further our intelligence and operations cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian aggression in the Middle East, to roll it back,” the prime minister said.

“That’s a common aim, and I have to say that I’m also very appreciative of the support, strong support and unequivocal support that you and the president gave our efforts at self-defense against Syria and Hezbollah just in the last few days.”

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With a battle-hardened terrorist organization sitting on Israel’s border, the IDF’s northern division inaugurates another battalion to defend Israel – “Gates of Fire.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The IDF announced Monday that it has added a new battalion to the Baram Division that is in charge of the Western Galilee, which would fight Hezbollah in the event that the Lebanon-based terrorist organization escalates the conflict in the north to all-out war.

Numbered 9300 and called “Gates of Fire,” the battalion already had its first war-training session last month, the IDF said. The soldiers took part in a wide variety of exercises that simulated situations likely to arise in northern communities and the border area if Hezbollah decided to go on the offensive against Israel. In fact, the terror group had already been preparing to attack by digging the tunnels exposed in recent weeks by the IDF’s Operation Northern Shield.

The five underground tunnels that were discovered, some of them extremely sophisticated, were either blown up or filled with liquid concrete by IDF forces. Others may still be out there, army sources have admitted, and one of the reasons for setting up the new battalion is to upgrade Israel’s ability to defend itself – as well as go on the offensive when necessary.

“Our battalion was set up to meet two main tasks,” Baram commander Col. Roey Levy told his new soldiers during the five-day training session. “The first is defensive…. In recent years, Hezbollah has been toughened in its battles in Syria, strengthened in terms of weapons, and has openly said that it had plans to attack our territory,” whether it be a village, army post or ridge. “We have to be prepared,” he said.

“It’s not for nothing that our battalion is called ‘Gates of Fire,” Levy continued. “After we stop the enemy’s plan of attack, it will be our turn to attack and subdue the organization in its own territory. You will have to be ready to act and attack key areas with the goal of opening the northern gate for the whole IDF.”

The soldiers of the battalion are all young combat reservists who served in an elite infantry unit in the Golani Division during their mandatory service. The oldest among them finished in 2012. Their original teams were also preserved as much as possible to enable them to fall back on old patterns and work together seamlessly.

Their commander, Lieut. Col. (Res.) Noam Aharon, praised his fighters’ sense of responsibility, which means being ready to serve at a moment’s notice.

“I’m confident in the men’s abilities to lead the defensive and offensive efforts, and I know that when we will be called to battle, we will bring victory together,” he stated.

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IDF’s intelligence chief said that the main goal of Operation Northern Shield is to make Hezbollah realize that it didn’t have a card up its sleeve after all.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Operation Northern Shield “is not an operation aimed at disrupting the offensive tunnels of Hezbollah,” IDF intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Tamir Heyman said at the Calcalist’s Forecasts 2019 conference in Tel Aviv on Monday. “This is a highly classified and broad program, in which the offensive component was a crucial and important part, but not the whole, not the entire program.”

Heyman, who served as commander of the Northern Corps., and took up his position as head of IDF intelligence at the end of March, 2018, said that the main goal of Israel’s current operation is to deter Hezbollah from attacking by letting the terror organization know that Israel is aware that the tunnels exist.

“The fact that Hezbollah held this card up its sleeve could have led it to irresponsible decision-making, believing in its ability to carry out an act of enormous damage to the State of Israel,” Maj.-Gen. Heyman said.

The intelligence chief noted that it was of “tremendous importance” for Israel to take from its enemies those abilities that lead them to make risky decisions, to prevent them from taking “dangerous gambles” that stem from the false understanding that they have capabilities that endanger Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces are determined to completely eliminate the motivation and ability of its enemies from  carrying out the types of attacks Hezbollah had planned, Maj. Gen. Heyman said.

The IDF estimates that Hezbollah’s plan involved an invasion of terrorists through the tunnels accompanied by artillery or missile bombardment. The IDF says that the terrorists planned to take control of major roads, invade Jewish towns in the north, killing and kidnapped Israeli civilians, and by doing so achieve a major propaganda victory.

Lebanese ‘soul-searching’

Maj. Gen. Heyman says that the citizens of Lebanon will do some “soul-searching” in the coming days as they think about the Hezbollah tunnels built with Iranian money and what would have happened to their country if Hezbollah had attacked, forcing an Israeli counter-attack on Lebanese infrastructure.

The intelligence chief painted a picture of Hezbollah in distress, noting it faced a difficult financial and political situation in Lebanon. Israel’s exposure of its terror tunnels further weakens it and gives Israel an edge against the Iran-backed group. He says Israel gained valuable knowledge in combating tunnels.

“The understanding Israel gained in taking care of underground damage that was created will serve it in the entire Lebanese sector, and the significance of this from Hezbollah’s point of view is terrible,” Maj. Gen. Heyman said.

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Last week the IDF poured liquid cement into a newly discovered terror tunnel running from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

On Friday, in the southern Lebanese village of Kafr Kila, the army released footage of “the reaction of what appears to be Hezbollah terrorists when they see the cement we poured into the attack tunnel that they had been digging from Lebanon into Israel, spilling out on the Lebanese side.”

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed on Saturday that the tunnel was in “violation of Resolution 1701,” adopted at the end of the 2006 Lebanon War.

It was the fifth attack tunnel exposed by the IDF since the launch of Operation Northern Shield, which began on December 4.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1078608632978329600

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The IDF has destroyed a fifth Hezbollah tunnel crossing from Lebanon into Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

The IDF has destroyed a fifth Hezbollah tunnel crossing from Lebanon into Israel as part of Operation Northern Shield, an IDF spokesman said Wednesday.

“We have just destroyed another Hezbollah attack tunnel that was dug from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” the spokesman said.

The tunnel came from Ayta ash Shab, a village across the border from an Israeli farming community. It violated Israeli territory.

“The IDF sees the Lebanese government as responsible for the digging of the tunnels and the consequences,” the spokesman added, calling the digging of the tunnels a gross violation of U.N. Resolution 1701 and of Israeli sovereignty.

The IDF launched Operation Northern Shield on Dec. 4 to seek out and destroy Hezbollah tunnels burrowing under the Blue Line, the border between Israel and Lebanon. The tunnels were a key part of the terror group’s plan to invade parts of Northern Israel in order to kill and capture Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah’s leaders have remained largely silent following the discovery of their tunnels, which most commentators agree is a major strategic and material loss for the organization.

TPS contributed to this report.

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“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.

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Israeli Ambassador Danon will demand the U.N. Security Council confront the terror threat from Hezbollah on Wednesday. He will also provide evidence of collaboration between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah. 

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet on Wednesday to discuss the exposure of Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels running into Israel from Lebanon.

The discussion is taking place at the request of Israel and the U.S. and will focus on the violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted at the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

The resolution includes restrictions on the arming of Hezbollah and its terrorist activities in southern Lebanon.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) agreed that the tunnels dug by the Lebanese terror group into Israel violate Security Council resolution 1701.

In a statement the U.N. force released Monday.“After further technical investigations conducted independently in accordance with its mandate, UNIFIL at this stage can confirm that two of the tunnels cross the Blue Line that demarcates the border between Israel and Lebanon. These constitute violations of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701,”

Before the U.N. discussion, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said that since UNIFIL “confirmed that Hezbollah tunnels are a flagrant violation of Resolution 1701, it is time for the Security Council to use all means necessary to confront this terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon, which has continued to grow under the Lebanese government.”

Danon said he “will show how these tunnels are just the beginning of a large-scale operation against Israel that Hezbollah has been planning and implementing for years.”

Israel has underscored the fact that the terror group dug the tunnels in order to infiltrate the country and carry out attacks. Hezbollah has not commented on the operation.

The IDF has so far exposed four Hezbollah tunnels in Operation Northern Shield. The mission to discover and neutralize more of them is expected to last several months.

Lebanese Army-Hezbollah link

One of the issues that Danon will emphasize is the Lebanese army’s cooperation, or at least it’s ignoring of Hezbollah’s tunnel project. Danon is expected to present intelligence materials – “conclusive proof,” as he put it – which attests to the coordination between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah.

He will also share previously unpublished information on Hezbollah’s violations of Resolution 1701.

“There is a clear connection between parts of the Lebanese army and the Hezbollah terror organization, which help the terrorist organization expand its terror infrastructure in the country and destabilize the region,” Danon said.

“Under the Lebanese government, a tunnel city and factories for accurate missiles were built, which not only blatantly violate the U.N. resolution but endanger the residents of south Lebanon who serve as human shields. Israel will thwart any threat and will act with force against Hezbollah and anyone else who will try to harm its sovereignty.”

The UNSC has “already said clearly to Hezbollah that it must not arm itself and continue its terrorist activity against Israel, which has not prevented the organization from continuing its path and now trying to infiltrate Israeli territory through terrorist tunnels,” he said.

Israel has reiterated that Lebanon, and not only Hezbollah, well bear full responsibility for any offensive activity that would emanate from Lebanon.

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Is Hezbollah trying to cover its tracks?

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

It appears Hezbollah is working to seal the cross-border terror tunnels the IDF has exposed in recent weeks as part of Operation Northern Shield.

Footage taken from inside the tunnels by the Israel Defense Forces shows a fairly new wall that was apparently erected by Hezbollah in an attempt to close the tunnel’s exit point into Lebanon.

‎‏The IDF has been analyzing the tunnels, using a variety of means, including photography and research capabilities to explore and fully understand the tunnels.

The IDF has so far exposed four Hezbollah tunnels, and the operation to discover and neutralize more of them is expected to last several more months.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has confirmed that the tunnels dug by the Lebanese terror group into Israel violate Security Council resolution 1701.

“After further technical investigations conducted independently in accordance with its mandate, UNIFIL at this stage can confirm that two of the tunnels cross the Blue Line that demarcates the border between Israel and Lebanon. These constitute violations of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701,” the peacekeeping force said in a statement Monday.

Israel underscored the fact that the terror group dug the tunnels in order to infiltrate the country and carry out attacks. Hezbollah has not commented on the operation.

Inside a Hezbollah tunnel:

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UNIFIL said that Hezbollah tunnels discovered by Israel cross the border and violate the agreement that ended the 2006 war.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon said Monday that two of the four tunnels discovered by Israel and dug by the Hezbollah terror group cross the border in violation of the cease-fire agreement that ended the 2006 war.

UNIFIL said it has been investigating the tunnels uncovered in an Israeli operation launched earlier this month. Israel says the terror group dug the tunnels to infiltrate the country and carry out attacks. Hezbollah has not officially commented on the operation, but one of the terror group’s operatives was caught on camera in one of the tunnels.

“This is a matter of serious concern and UNIFIL technical investigations continue,” the peacekeeping force said in a statement.

UNIFIL said two tunnels cross the so-called Blue Line that demarcates the border between Israel and Lebanon. It called on Lebanese authorities to take “urgent follow-up” action.

Israel and Lebanon are technically at war, and Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. The cease-fire called on Israel to withdraw from the south and Hezbollah to keep away from the border. It also stipulated that only UNIFIL and the Lebanese armed forces would be deployed south of the Litani River.

Israel has collected evidence proving that Hezbollah regularly flouts the agreement, with the terror group amassing an arsenal of about 150,000 rockets.

Earlier Monday, Lebanese soldiers went on alert after Israeli troops rolled out barbed wire along the border.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the incident occurred on the edge of the southern village of Mays al-Jabal when Israeli troops installed 200 meters (yards) of wire. Lebanese troops protested that the wire was placed on their side of the border.

The Israeli military said its troops were placing concertina wire “adjacent to the Blue Line” when the standoff occurred. It said the wire was installed entirely in Israeli territory, in coordination with the peacekeepers. “No violent incidents were reported,” it said.

UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said that after reports of a “standoff” between Lebanese and Israeli troops along the Blue Line, “UNIFIL troops were deployed in the area to defuse the situation, prevent misunderstandings and maintain stability.”

“The situation in the area is now calm and our troops are on the ground,” Tenenti said.

Israel called on the international community to impose new sanctions on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a heavily-armed terror proxy whose missiles can reach nearly every part of Israel.

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said earlier this month his government was ready to take necessary action following a full report from the peacekeeping force on the tunnels, without offering specifics.

In Beirut, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said Lebanon is committed to the full implementation of the cease-fire agreement and respect of the Blue Line. During a meeting with Gen. Stefano Del Col, the head of UNIFIL, Hariri said the Lebanese army will conduct patrols to deal “with any flaw in the implementation” of the cease-fire.

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