IDF chief of staff calls on UNIFIL to destroy cross-border attack tunnels

IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot met with the head of the Lebanon-based UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col, calling on him and the Lebanese military to destroy the cross-border attack tunnels that Israel says Hezbollah has dug into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, the army says.

Last week, Israel launched Operation Northern Shield to find and destroy these tunnels. It has exposed two tunnels so far, and the army says it is aware of several others.

“IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot showed [Del Col] the operation’s progress and noted the importance he sees in UNIFIL troops working to neutralize the tunnels on the Lebanese side,” the army says.

The two met at the Israel Defense Force’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Eisenkot also called the Hezbollah tunnels a violation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War and required all army groups besides the Lebanese military to remain north of the country’s Litani River.

UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces are meant to enforce the UN resolution.

“The chief of staff stressed that the responsibility for the digging of the tunnels by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is on the Lebanese government,” the army says.

— Judah Ari Gross