From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Hamas, Hezbollah and the tunnels
ToI’s Elhanan Miller has penned a piece looking at the new concern that Hezbollah has been tunneling under the northern border, in the same way that Hamas dug 30-plus tunnels under the southern border.
He writes: Residents of Israeli communities on the Lebanese border, such as Kibbutz Gesher Haziv and the town of Kiryat Shmona, have in the past reported hearing muffled sounds underground, which they believe indicate Hezbollah tunnel digging. Now, though, such reports are gaining new resonance. Kiryat Shmona Mayor Nissim Malka sent Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon an urgent appeal last week to investigate the matter. Apparently, the Israeli security establishment is taking the concerns extremely seriously.
Officially, the IDF told ToI: “As of now, in every case in which suspicions regarding a tunnel existed, specially trained forces were deployed and did not identify any tunnels or access shafts. These efforts are combined with technological solutions in order to ensure that no tunnels exist. Future force building plans also include further technological advances for tunnel detection.”
But, as Miller’s piece makes plain, there’s no room whatsoever for complacency. Last month, he notes, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said that the exchange of knowledge between Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel is ongoing.
