WarSclerotic

The Israeli military on Thursday began to seal off ‎four cross-border attack tunnels breaching Israeli ‎territory from Lebanon. ‎

The tunnels were dug by Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ‎terrorist group, and were discovered as part of ‎Operation Northern Shield, launched on Dec. 4 with ‎aim of neutralizing the underground grid. ‎

The Israeli military said that at this time, the ‎operation is open-ended and aims to destroy the ‎entire network.‎

Residents of several Israeli border-adjacent communities reported hearing the echoes of ‎explosions on Thursday evening. ‎

IDF Spokesman in English Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus ‎confirmed that those were the sounds of controlled explosions, saying that Israeli forces were working ‎at more than one location. ‎

He stressed that all activities were taking place inside ‎Israeli territory.‎

An IDF statement said this was part of “operational ‎activities currently taking part on the border. The ‎mayors of the communities near the border have been ‎advised accordingly. The IDF continues with its ‎efforts to uncover and neutralize terror tunnels.”‎

IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis later ‎‎told reporters that the process of ‎neutralizing Hezbollah’s tunnels was pursued ‎according to each passageway’s individual outline, noting that every tunnel was different.‎

‎”This part of the operation will take more than one ‎day. The plan is to render the Hezbollah tunnels ‎breaching our territory useless,” he said.‎

A military statement added that the IDF “holds the ‎Lebanese government responsible for Hezbollah’s ‎excavation enterprise” and warned the Lebanese army and ‎civilians against approaching the tunnels on their ‎side of the border. ‎