Israel Exposes Hezbollah Terror Tunnel Infiltration Plan at the UN

The United Nations Security Council held a special session on Wednesday, requested by the United States and Israel, to discuss Hezbollah's underground attack tunnels that penetrated the Blue Line, the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel. The tunnels were recently discovered by the Israeli Defense Force. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) independently verified the presence of the tunnels, two of which it said had crossed the Blue Line into Israel. UNIFIL confirmed that these tunnels violated Security Council Resolution 1701, which the Security Council had unanimously agreed upon in 2006 after the 34-day Second Lebanon war. Briefing the Security Council, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, said, “While the tunnels do not appear thus far to have exit points on the Israeli side, they are a serious violation of resolution 1701.” Fortunately, Israel discovered the tunnels in time before Hezbollah was able to create an opening on the Israeli side of the Blue Line and send their terrorist forces into Israeli towns to kill or kidnap innocent Israeli civilians and take over parts of the Galilee.

The evidence of Hezbollah’s terror tunnels is beyond dispute, despite efforts by Hezbollah to cover its tracks once the tunnels were discovered

The evidence of Hezbollah’s terror tunnels is beyond dispute, despite efforts by Hezbollah to cover its tracks once the tunnels were discovered. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, for example, revealed to the Security Council members an aerial photograph of a "private compound" in the southern part of the Lebanese town of Kfar Kila from which an underground attack tunnel crossed the border into Israel, passing close to a UNIFIL observation post. While the Lebanese army, the official military forces of the Lebanese Republic, is supposed to work with UNIFIL to help secure peace in southern Lebanon, it has failed to do so. The terrorist organization Hezbollah calls all the shots. Ambassador Danon shared Israeli intelligence with the Security Council revealing troublesome collaboration between Lebanese army officials and the terrorist organization Hezbollah. "Israel gave UNIFIL precise information about the location of the tunnel,” Ambassador Danon said. “After UNIFIL told the Lebanese army, it was then stopped when it tried to reach the area. Sources within the Lebanese army informed Hezbollah about the information, which enabled the terrorist organization to conceal the tunnel's operations and thwart Israel's defensive actions." Hezbollah also uses Lebanese civilians as human shields Ambassador Danon revealed an additional aerial photograph of Kfar Kila, in which he showed documentation of Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure, including two tunnels that penetrated the border into Israel, along with observation posts and information gathering and weapons storage areas. "Hezbollah has built a terror base inside a civilian population, with its end on the Israeli side of the border, all financed by Iran,” Ambassador Danon said. “This not only a clear violation of Resolution 1701, but Hezbollah also uses Lebanese civilians as human shields. Hezbollah is hijacking the entire State of Lebanon to attack Israel, and the Government of Lebanon has surrendered. By closing its eyes, as its people live inside a ticking time bomb of terror tunnels, missiles and rockets, the Government of Lebanon has failed its people.”

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"The US has taken Hezbollah’s threats against Israel at face value. It is high time the international community do so as well"

In remarks he delivered to the Security Council on behalf of the United States, Rodney Hunter, minister counselor for Political Affairs for the U.S. Mission to the UN, said, “The US has taken Hezbollah’s threats against Israel at face value. It is high time the international community do so as well. It is both regrettable and incomprehensible that some Council members dismiss the threat from Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a real threat. What further proof do you need?” Hezbollah has made no bones about its ambition to attack Israel. “When the resistance (Hezbollah) leadership… asks you (fighters)… to enter into Galilee,” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned back in 2015, “that means the resistance must be ready to enter into Galilee and to go even beyond the Galilee.” In 2016, Lebanese cleric Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, said in an interview that “Israel is closer than ever before to its demise.” In June 2018, Nasrallah threatened that “the day of the great war is coming.” Hezbollah’s tunnels into Israeli territory were intended as the terrorists’ beachhead from which to launch their threatened land invasion. Hezbollah is estimated to have around 30,000 trained fighters as well as some reservists. Hezbollah is also armed to the teeth with over 100,000 Iranian-supplied rockets and missiles, which the terrorists have threatened to launch against identified targets in Israel. Its leader has boasted that just one missile strike would kill tens of thousands of people. Lebanon’s UN Ambassador Amal Mudallali, backed up by Kuwait (a non-permanent member of the Security Council), tried to turn the tables on Israel. She accused Israel of violating Lebanon’s sovereignty through its flights in Lebanon’s airspace and by other means on multiple occasions. “Just imagine, esteemed members of the Council, if we were to call for a Security Council meeting, every time Israel had violated Lebanon’s sovereignty since 2006,” she said. “You will be in a 24/7 shift to address them.” Ambassador Mudallali claimed the state of Lebanon “did not commit any violations, while the violations on the Israeli side were done by the Israeli government.” Lebanon’s army is “the sole responsible power for defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon,” she said, repeating Lebanon’s Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri’s meaningless assertion. She further quoted the Prime Minister designate in falsely claiming that the Lebanese army “cooperates with the UNIFIL forces.”

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Hezbollah’s aggressive tunneling and stockpiling of weapons and rockets

Sadly, Ambassador Mudallali is speaking for a powerless government highjacked by Hezbollah, which she did not refer to once in her remarks to the Security Council. The Lebanese government had committed in 2006 that there would be “no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State.” The Lebanese government has proven itself unable or unwilling to stop the Hezbollah militias from accumulating vast stockpiles of sophisticated offensive weapons. With at least 100,000 rockets and missiles in its arsenal, Hezbollah controls 10 times the number it had in 2006. Hezbollah maintains de facto control over swathes of Lebanese territory and over communities whose residents do what Hezbollah tells them to do, including the hiding of weapons in their homes. Lebanese army officials are cooperating with Hezbollah to frustrate, not assist, UNIFIL’s forces in carrying out their mandate. Lamenting that “Lebanon is condemned to be the victim of continuous threats, conflict and pain,” Lebanon’s UN Ambassador Amal Mudallali blames the wrong party. Hezbollah, not Israel, has turned her people into human shields and her land into what Israeli Ambassador Danon called “a launching pad for terror.” Ambassador Mudallali charged that Israel has violated Resolution 1701 far more seriously than any violation that may have resulted from the construction of the tunnels. She got it all backwards. Hezbollah’s buildup of an arsenal of rockets and missiles aimed at targets in Israel – far larger and more lethal than it had in 2006 – is the continuing violation of Resolution 1701 that transcends all others. Even worse than standing on the sidelines, the official Lebanese state military has worked with Hezbollah. “It does this in two ways – by giving Hezbollah information that helps the terror group’s efforts,” explained Israeli Ambassador Danon, “and by preventing UNIFIL from carrying out its mandate in the region.” UNIFIL has not successfully carried out its stated mandate “to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.” In these circumstances, Israel has not only the right but the duty to protect its citizens by all necessary means. Its flights over Lebanon to gather intelligence are for Israel’s legitimate self-defense in the face of Hezbollah’s illegal positioning of offensive weapons aimed at Israeli infrastructure facilities and civilian populations. “Any action we take is a defensive measure against Hezbollah’s aggressive tunneling and stockpiling of weapons and rockets,” Ambassador Danon said. “While one side – Hezbollah – builds a terror network inside civilian communities, the other side – Israel – defends its civilians and its sovereignty.” Just as the United Nations failed to condemn Hamas’s terrorist activities, it will undoubtedly fail to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization as Israel has requested, let alone take any action to stop Hezbollah’s aggressive behavior. The international community stood by as Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust. The Israeli government will not let that happen to its citizens as the UN dithers. Israel has every legal and moral right to do whatever it deems necessary to defend itself.