ENTRE News – The militia group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, is said to have underground tunnels in Lebanon, which are much wider than the Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip. Foreign Policy magazine’s intelligence and national security correspondent, Amy Mackinnon, said that Iran, as Hezbollah’s backer, has land and air routes through Iraq and Syria that lead to Lebanon. The tunnels were allegedly used to supply weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah, in preparation if war broke out in the region.
“Unlike Gaza, which is geographically isolated from its supporters in Tehran, Iran has established land and air supply routes leading to Lebanon via Iraq and Syria that Hezbollah forces could use in the event of all-out war,” Mackinnon said, as quoted by Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
Previously in January, the Israeli military (IDF) revealed about a four-kilometer long tunnel that is wide and can be passed by vehicles, stretching from Jabaliya in the north of Gaza City to around 400 meters from the Erez border FOR4D.
Reported by the Times of Israel, the Hezbollah tunnel project in Lebanon was allegedly built before the construction of the Hamas tunnel in Gaza. The director of the Alma Research and Education Center research institute, Tal Beeri, admitted to finding a “polygon map” from open intelligence sources, which contained information about the “Land of the Tunnels” in southern Lebanon.
“The map is marked, by an anonymous party, with polygons (circles) showing 36 geographic regions, cities and villages,” he wrote in a paper published in 2021.
“In our research, this polygon is part of Hezbollah’s defense plan against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Each point has a network of underground tunnels, which are connected to regional tunnels,” he said in the paper.
Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israel last week in retaliation for a Zionist attack that killed their senior commander. Israel responded to the attack by launching thousands of air strikes.
“Around 140 thousand people have fled their homes on both sides of the border,” wrote Foreign Policy FOR4D.
Regarding this war, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, claimed that Hezbollah would be destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). However, according to Foreign Policy, this destruction will not only be experienced by Hezbollah but also by Israel.
“Israel will also have blood on its hands. Hezbollah is a much more formidable enemy than Hamas, as it is considered the most heavily armed non-state actor in the world according to the Center for International and Strategic Studies,” wrote Foreign Policy.
“This group has built sophisticated weapons with the help of Iran, Syria and Russia,” continued Foreign Policy.
Foreign Policy analogizes Hezbollah as a strategic threat to Israel. Meanwhile Hamas is a tactical threat. A number of top Israeli generals have reportedly agreed on a war plan with Hezbollah after more than eight months of heated borders between the two countries.
“The plan for an offensive strike operation in Lebanon has been approved,” the IDF said in a statement.
According to senior US officials, a war between Israel and Hezbollah is very likely to break out considering the heated situation on the border of the two countries. Apart from that, the stalled ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel is also said to have increased tensions between the two.
