Israel destroys tunnels on Lebanon border

By Ossama al-Gassani

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli troops have destroyed tunnels allegedly dug by the Lebanese group Hezbollah from southern Lebanon into Israel.

The army said in a statement Thursday the move was part of Operation Northern Shield.

The statement was also issued in order to explain the sounds of explosions near the Lebanese border and residents and mayors of the region had been informed about them, it said.

On Dec. 4, the army launched a military operation to “expose and thwart” the cross-border tunnels.

The effort was aimed at “thwarting Hezbollah’s offensive tunnels stretched inside our territory,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said previously in a statement.

He claimed the tunnels “were posing an immediate threat to the citizens of Israel”.

“It is a flagrant breach of Israeli sovereignty," he said, going on to describe the tunnels as “a serious violation” of UN resolutions, particularly Resolution 1701, which brought the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 to a halt.

In 2006, Israel launched a war against Hezbollah, during which at least 1,200 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, were killed.