IDF soldiers lift the cover of a hole dug into a cross-border tunnel built by Hezbollah, near Metula, Dec. 19, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.

JNS.org – Hezbollah began digging cross-border attack tunnels before the 2006 Second Lebanon War, as opposed to three or four years ago, as the Israel Defense Forces has said, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

The IDF declined to comment on the report.

According to Channel 13 news, the then-head of the army’s Northern Command, Benny Gantz, was told in 2005 by Col. Yossi Langotsky, adviser to the IDF chief of staff, that Hezbollah tunnels were being constructed into Israel. The threat was apparently ignored.

The IDF launched “Operation Northern Shield” in December 2018 to destroy the terror tunnels.

“With the discovery of this terror tunnel, the effort to locate the passages dug by Hezbollah that crossed the border into Israeli territory has been completed,” the army said in a statement. “The neutralization of this passage will be completed in the coming days.”

Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that “according to our intelligence and our assessment of the situation, there are no longer any cross-border attack tunnels from Lebanon into Israel.”