Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday appealed to the international community to impose additional sanctions on Iran-backed Hezbollah and condemn the Lebanese terrorist group in response to the discovery of tunnels dug by the group from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.
Stepping up an international campaign to pressure Hezbollah, in hopes of drumming up support for a potential IDF operation against Hezbollah in the future, Israel also hosted the commander of a U.N. peacekeeping force, showing him one of the tunnels and urging the force to take action across the border.
This week, the IDF launched what it said would be a monthlong operation meant to expose and thwart a network of tunnels built by the Lebanese Shiite group. The tunnels are reportedly designed to allow Hezbollah operatives to infiltrate Israel. The operation is now focused on Israeli territory bordering three major villages in Lebanon.
Netanyahu toured the area where the operation is being conducted with a group of foreign ambassadors on Thursday.
"I told the ambassadors that they need to unequivocally condemn this aggression against us by Iran, by Hezbollah and by Hamas, and of course, to also strengthen the sanctions against these elements," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also said he would demand a U.N. Security Council discussion on the matter.
He predicted that at the conclusion of the operation, the tunnels "will no longer exist and will no longer be effective."
Speaking at an annual ceremony honoring outstanding Mossad personnel at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said, "Hezbollah has two tools of aggression. One is tunnels, and we are getting rid of them. The other is rockets, an imprecise weapon, but they also want precision weapons. This changes the balance of power radically."
"According to Hezbollah's plans, they were already supposed to be armed with thousands of missiles, but right now they only have a few dozen. The reason that they only have a few dozen is sitting right here in this room. It is the combination of the Mossad, the IDF and our entire security system. We are also preventing them from getting those weapons – not absolutely, but to a very impressive extent."
IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters Thursday that the army is now operating in three areas where tunnels have been discovered.
"We are aware of additional tunnels," he said.
He went on to say that IDF GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick gave UNIFIL Commander Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col a tour of a tunnel that crossed into Israel on Thursday.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Del Col confirmed the existence of the tunnel during the inspection, describing it as a "serious occurrence" and promising to pursue "urgent follow-up action."
He also said UNIFIL would share its findings with the "appropriate authorities" in Lebanon.
"It is very important to determine the full picture of this serious occurrence," he said.
UNIFIL's corroboration of the tunnels near Metula served to further validate Israeli claims of Hezbollah's having violated U.N. Resolution, making it all the more difficult for the Lebanese government to deny the issue.
Strick also presented UNIFIL with a map of the location of a second tunnel, along with houses in Lebanon that Israel says are connected to the tunnel.
He said Israel demanded that UNIFIL investigate and "neutralize" the shaft of the tunnel and that anyone entering the tunnels would be putting their lives at risk.
Senior IDF officers have also met with foreign military attaches to discuss the tunnels.
As part of its diplomatic efforts, the IDF plans to block off the first tunnel exposed in the operation and bring journalists, ambassadors, attaches and anyone else who can help legitimize Israel's efforts around the world to view the tunnel.
Israel said its operation would stop on its side of the border. But Israeli media on Wednesday quoted an unnamed senior official saying Israel could broaden its actions into Lebanon.
There was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah or Lebanese authorities.
All parties say the situation has remained calm on both sides of the border. But the Israeli operation has focused attention on a frontier across which Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006.
Israel says it holds the Lebanese government responsible for the actions of Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Armed Forces and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon responsible "for all events transpiring in and emanating from Lebanon."
In Lebanon, LBC TV posted an audio message that it said some residents of the border village of Kafr Kila received on their cellphones Thursday warning them to stay away from tunnels.
"Hezbollah is putting your lives in danger by digging tunnels," said the Arabic audio message, which appeared to have been sent by Israel. "These tunnels could explode. Anyone who is near the tunnels is putting his or her life in danger."
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil on Thursday instructed Lebanon's representative at the United Nations to lodge a complaint against Israel over its "diplomatic and political campaign against Lebanon that seeks to pave the way for an aggression." He also denounced Israel's encroachment on the Lebanese telecommunications network by sending recorded messages to the residents of Kafr Kila.
Netanyahu said this week Hezbollah was planning to send militants through the tunnels to launch attacks and he expanded on his comments on Thursday.
"Hezbollah wants to insert several battalions to our territory with the aim of isolating communities, towns and kibbutzim to continue its reign of terror and abductions which could take place simultaneously," he said.
While Israel has said the tunnels did not pose an immediate threat to Israelis, one diplomatic official said that under the cover of fog, Hezbollah operatives would easily be able to use the cross-border tunnels to kidnap or kill and Israeli citizen and retreat back into Lebanese territory unnoticed. The official said the particularly wide tunnels would allow for large forces to be sent into Israel to cut off communities and take over towns.
According to the official, one of the reasons the IDF embarked on Operation Northern Shield at this time was due to concerns over leaks. "If Hezbollah would have known what we know about the tunnels, it could have used this weapon."
The IDF remains on high alert and has sent reinforcements to the area in preparation for the front to escalate.
Defense officials, however, remain focused on what they say is the real problem posed by Hezbollah and that is the organization's efforts to acquire precise weapons. Israeli officials hope that future diplomatic efforts, as well as those currently underway, will make it possible to significantly delay these efforts. The defense establishment knows that should these efforts prove unsuccessful, Israel may need to attack those weapons factories again in the future, a move that could be interpreted by the other side as a declaration of war.
Meanwhile, the IDF has also launched an online campaign in Arabic directed at Lebanon's residents. In a tweet directed at Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the IDF's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote, "Hezbollah continues to lie to you and the public in Lebanon. Above ground, they lie and below ground, they dig."
Adraee also tweeted at Lebanon's foreign minister, inviting him to examine the activity in the factory in Kafr Kila that was used for the terror tunnel project.
"Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil is used to lying to people and disparaging them. Perhaps the time has come for a tour near the cement factory in Kafr Kila?" he tweeted.
