A Hezbollah tunnel has been found 100 metres from a United Nations peacekeeper base in Lebanon, raising questions about how the UN could be unaware of it and why UN troops are refusing to evacuate. The Telegraph has the story.
High up on the dry brush hills that rise steadily from the Israeli border, the UN watchtower surveys southern Lebanon and the plains below as far as the eye can see.
But no more than 100 metres from the blast walls below the tower, a rusty metal trapdoor swings open to reveal a tunnel cut deep into the rock.
This, the Israeli military says, is the entrance to a Hezbollah attack position.
It is one of two within a stone’s throw of a UN base where international soldiers have for years rotated in and out to prevent another war breaking out.
The tunnels were shown to the Telegraph by Israeli troops on Sunday before the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the UN to withdraw “immediately”.
His demand came as Israeli tanks rammed through the gates of a UN base – and a few days after UN soldiers were injured by IDF tank rounds.
The “most important part is to see the proximity to the UN. It’s right here”, an Israeli soldier told this newspaper as he stood over the tunnel entrance.
“To build a tunnel like this you need a lot of equipment. You can’t hide it. It’s very odd to us that the UN didn’t see these activities,” General Yiftach, whose division now controls the area, added.
The Telegraph, the first British newspaper to enter southern Lebanon from Israel, was taken to the tunnel in an armoured vehicle. …
After a string of incidents in the past two days which have seen Unifil peacekeepers once again coming under fire, the IDF’s spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said more than 24 attacks had been carried out by Hezbollah firing missiles near Unifil posts, “in some cases a few dozen metres away”.
“Hezbollah has been purposefully locating their weapons in areas such as near Unifil bases,” Mr. Shoshani told reporters. Today, 25 soldiers were injured in a “planned Hezbollah attack in very close proximity” to a Unifil post where Hezbollah is known to operate.
According to the IDF, the peacekeepers were already in shelters after being notified.
“Hezbollah has chosen to bring the battlefield near Unifil posts… a pattern Hezbollah operates,” Mr Shoshani added, saying Hezbollah wants to “drag Unifil into the line of fire”.
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