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Cross-Border Jihad: IDF Reveals Record-Shattering Hezbollah Terror Tunnel

   DailyWire.com

Israel has not faced a full-scale war against the Lebanon-based Shiite sharia supremacist jihadist group Hezbollah since 2006, but there have been rumblings of late about a possible conflict brewing. As The Daily Wire reported last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently warned about a possible Hezbollah infiltration of Israel’s Sea of Galilee. The Times of Israel reported at the time:

The new commander of the IDF’s Ground Forces said Thursday the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah was still planning to carry out a surprise invasion of northern Israel, despite the recent Israeli operation to uncover and destroy an extensive network of cross-border attack tunnels dug by the Iran-backed militia.

Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick was tapped to lead the military’s Ground Forces in February, amid increased criticism charging that Israeli troops were not prepared for war. His comments came less than four months after the IDF concluded its anti-tunnel operation along the Lebanese border.

“Hezbollah still has plans to invade the Galilee,” he told the Ynet news site in an interview, referring to entering Israeli territory through a cross-border tunnel network. “Of course we won’t allow that to happen, we will thwart these plans.”

In March, roughly a month prior to the IDF’s warning, Israeli intelligence had unveiled recent Hezbollah activity in the Golan Heights region, which is adjacent to the Sea of Galilee. Suffice it to say that, even as Israel continues to struggle with the restive Sunni sharia supremacist jihadist group Hamas on its southwestern border, much of the IDF’s institutional eyes remain fixated upon the Hezbollah threat from the Lebanese north.

Now, The Times of Israel reports how the IDF has unveiled the “longest and most significant” Hezbollah cross-border terror tunnel it has ever discovered:

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday revealed a cross-border Hezbollah attack tunnel that was discovered running into Israeli territory from Lebanon during this past winter’s Operation Northern Shield, saying it was “the longest and most significant” subterranean passage found in the effort.

The military released the additional details about this tunnel — one of six that the it said it found during the operation — ahead of its planned destruction.

The army said the tunnel was dug to a depth of 80 meters (260 feet), was a kilometer (3280 feet) long and penetrated 77 meters (250 feet) into Israeli territory. It began close to the Lebanese village of Ramiya, the IDF said, with an exit close to the Israeli villages of Shtula and Zar’it. …

The IDF said the tunnel was equipped with advanced infrastructure for electricity, ventilation and communications systems, and that the passage would have taken years to complete.

Last year, during the aforementioned Operation Northern Shield, Israel found and detonated numerous Hezbollah-built terror tunnels. The tunnels are designed to allow jihadists to stealthily trespass into Israeli territory and capture or kill as many Israeli Jews as possible.

In addition to its harrowing terror tunnels, Iran-financed Hezbollah is exceedingly well-armed in terms of its missile and rocket arsenal. Consider this 2016 piece at The Tower bluntly entitled, “The New Hezbollah: Israel’s Next War Will Be A Godawful Mess”:

Hezbollah’s own preparations for its next war with Israel betray its intentions to once again act as a guerrilla force. Hezbollah has expanded and upgraded its already formidable underground tunnel network in south Lebanon. Replicating its strategy of using civilian cover, it has built up over 200 Shiite villages into fortified fighting zones, with rockets, anti-aircraft missiles, and command centers. Israel will be forced once again to choose between the unsavory options of striking the villages and killing civilians, or withholding fire. Despite rhetoric from the IDF brass that these areas will be considered targetable military bases, the Gideon Doctrine still acknowledges this as a real dilemma.

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