IDF officer: Hezbollah still has tunnels on Lebanese side of the border

Israel is ready to stop a potential Hezbollah invasion, including from tunnels that the IDF has not yet destroyed, an IDF commander for fighting Hezbollah's underground warfare in the north said.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
IDF SOLDIERS LIFT the cover off a hole into a cross-border tunnel dug from Lebanon into Israel, near Metulla, last month (photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
IDF SOLDIERS LIFT the cover off a hole into a cross-border tunnel dug from Lebanon into Israel, near Metulla, last month
(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
Israel is ready to stop a potential Hezbollah invasion, including from tunnels that the IDF has yet to destroy, the head of the IDF's Underground Warfare Department in the North revealed on Monday.
“If there is any [Hezbollah] tunnel near the border, we will know about them,” said Lt. Col. Aviv Amir, an Engineering Corps officer who oversees IDF efforts to to detect and destroy tunnels, whether from Lebanon or the Gaza Strip.
In late 2018, the IDF destroyed six Hezbollah cross-border tunnels and proclaimed the tunnel threat from Hezbollah vanquished.
In his presentation on Monday, Amir said that in 2018 the IDF also meant to demolish a Hezbollah tunnel near the Israeli town of Misgav Am.
However, when the IDF counter-tunnel units found that the tunnel came up to Israel’s border, but did not cross it, the military decided to leave it alone.
Hezbollah is believed to have additional tunnels similar to the one discovered last year near Misgav Am that end close to the Israeli border but do not cross it. 
Amir said that Israel has “no plan to get into the Lebanese side,” absent Hezbollah starting a new conflict.
At the same time, he said that the IDF knows about tunnels it did not destroy which still exist on the Lebanese side and maintains constant readiness to address any potential Hezbollah invasion.