The Israeli military claimed on Sunday that the sixth and final tunnel dug by Hezbollah for cross-border attacks has been unraveled by Israeli troops saying it was wrapping up its operation along the Lebanese border.
The Israeli military spokesman said in a statement that the final tunnel was running from Ramyeh village south of Lebanon into Palestinian territory occupied in 1948.
Israel launched the “Operation Northern Shield” early last month to detect and destroy what it alleged is a vast network of Hezbollah tunnels aimed for militants to sneak across the border and carry out attacks.
The spokesman said the latest tunnel originating from the Lebanese border town of Ramyeh was 55 meters deep and ran 800 meters inside Lebanese territory and also “dozens” of meters into Israel. It included stairs a rail system and a wide a passageway that allowed for the movement of equipment and a large number of forces.
The tunnel would be destroyed in the coming days he said adding that while more tunnels still existed on the Lebanese side of the border this effectively marked the end of the military operation.
“We have achieved the goal that we set out to achieve a month and a half ago” he said. “According to our intelligence there are no longer any cross-border attack tunnels into Israel.”
He said the U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL had been updated on the latest development.
The military said its forces would stay deployed along the border area to monitor for any other possible underground activity and said it holds the Lebanese government responsible for everything happening in its territory.
