The Hezbollah attack tunnels crossing into Israeli territory from Lebanon that Israel has begun to uncover were to be used by the Iran-backed terror group for a surprise attack to kick off a future war, a senior IDF officer said Wednesday.
The army believes the tunnel uncovered Tuesday east of the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila was meant to let in Hezbollah fighters who would cut off the Israeli town of Metulla, which lies directly along the border with Lebanon, said the senior officer in the military’s Northern Command, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The idea was to cut off Metulla from the south, including by blocking the main entry road, Route 90.
The officer, citing military assessments, said Hezbollah planned to use the tunnels as part of a wider operation to conquer parts of the panhandle in Israel’s Galilee in a future conflict.
On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar claim, saying the tunnels were part of a wider effort to “inflict great damage” to Israel and Israeli citizens.
“Capturing parts of the Galilee by Hezbollah is a concrete threat,” he said. “It is also part of a regional and global terror effort led by Iran.”
The one tunnel the army says it has uncovered so far reached 40 meters (130 feet) into Israeli territory outside Metulla, and was two meters (six feet) tall by two meters (six feet) wide. It’s unclear how many fighters Hezbollah could have sent through the tunnel before being detected and if they would be enough to capture or hold significant swaths of Israeli territory.
The army has not said how many other cross-border tunnels it believes there are, but reportedly believes there are at least five.
Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said Tuesday that the army “is in possession of” Hezbollah’s tunnel plan. Hadashot TV said Wednesday that the IDF tackled the tunnel heading to Metulla first, because it was being dug toward a residential area, while other tunnels are heading to army positions. The IDF was operating at at least three sites along the border, including in the Western Galilee, as of Wednesday evening.
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