The Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah on Monday demanded that a railroad tunnel at Israel’s Rosh Hanikra be handed over to Lebanese sovereignty.
According to a report by Channel 12, the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie said Israel had to take apart the concrete barrier it built at the tunnel’s Lebanese exit and transfer the area to Lebanese jurisdiction.
“Our sovereign rights are enshrined in our decision to reinstate every centimeter from the occupied tunnel, without harming our decision to also return our land and sea borders,” said Hamie during a visit to the south Lebanese town of Al-Nakora, close to the Israeli border.
The tunnel is part of a now-defunct rail network built by the British Mandate throughout the region, and has been closed since Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. It was first dug in 1941 and is 695 meters long, according to the report.
Today, it is situated on the international border and was sealed with concrete in the year 2000, when Israel left its security zone in Southern Lebanon.
On July 4, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister issued a thinly veiled warning to Hezbollah, just days after the Iranian proxy dispatched three drones towards an Israeli natural gas installation, warning it against action designed to torpedo negotiations with Israel over maritime borders.
“Lebanon considers that any action outside the framework of the state’s responsibility and the diplomatic context in which the negotiations are happening is unacceptable and exposes (Lebanon) to unnecessary risks,” the office of Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said in a statement.
