Hezbollah
Iran’s ultimate goal is to encircle Israel with bases of missiles and terrorist armies, a sentiment made clear by Tehran’s Palestinian proxy group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is the second-largest armed faction in the Gaza Strip.
The goal is to avoid a larger conflagration among the different powers involved.
Ties between Hamas and Iran have grown over the past couple of years. Hamas initially opposed the Assad regime following the onset of Syria’s civil war, leading Iran to virtually sever ties to the terrorist organization.
The latest tunnel was dug from the Lebanese town of Ayta ash Shab, just across from the small Israeli farming town of Shtula in the Galilee.
An Israeli airstrike in Syria targeted senior members of the Hezbollah terror organization as they boarded a plane to Iran, according to a U.S. Defense Department source citing an Israeli military official.
IDF continues open-ended operation to destroy cross-border tunnels • One tunnel will be kept intact, allowing ambassadors, journalists and others to get firsthand look at what Hezbollah attack tunnel looks like.
“Hezbollah has built a terror base inside a civilian population, with its end on the Israeli side of the border, all financed by Iran,” said Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon in a special session of the U.N. Security Council.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon will present what he calls “clear-cut intelligence evidence” that proves the Lebanese Armed Forces and Hezbollah are coordinating their activity and allowing the terrorist group to undermine Israel’s efforts to tackle these tunnels.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, one of the tunnels was already partially sealed by the Hezbollah, despite the fact that the army had affixed a booby trap to prevent terrorists from entering it.
“After further technical investigations conducted independently in accordance with its mandate, UNIFIL at this stage can confirm that two of the tunnels cross the Blue Line. These constitute violations of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701,” stated the peacekeeping force.
Russia backed Israel’s “Operation Northern Shield” to destroy the Hezbollah tunnels, though it warned against violating the resolution.
Israeli officials said the existence of the tunnels are a “serious violation of Resolution 1701 and the State of Israel’s sovereignty.”
