Hizballah - Tunnels
The French newspaper "Liberation" said 21 February 2024 that since the 1980s, Hezbollah in Lebanon, with the help of North Korea, has been building an underground defense system in anticipation of an Israeli invasion, and has indeed established an underground military network more advanced than the one in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of kilometers long and has Branches reach Israel and may reach Syria. The newspaper explained - in a report written by Lawrence Defrano - that when Hezbollah announced its support for the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) at the beginning of the Israeli bombing of Gaza, it broadcast on the “X” platform a video clip that represents a nightmare for Israel, which is a fake attack in the Galilee carried out by an elite unit - ”Al-Radwan" .
The newspaper reported that the Palestinian groups that took refuge in Lebanon in the early 1960s began digging when they were carrying out missile attacks and incursions into northern Israel, and that Hezbollah took over the task after that, according to General Olivier Basso, assistant researcher at the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School and head of the Previous contact with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
General Basso explained that drilling in southern Lebanon is not like digging in sand and laying concrete, as Hamas did to create the “Gaza Metro,” which has nearly a thousand kilometers of tunnels. Rather, drilling in southern Lebanon is manually digging rocks with drilling machines or hydraulic machines, and estimates indicate that On average, each worker can dig about 15 meters per month.
The “Alma” Research Center in Israel is investigating, based on open sources, what it called in a report published in 2021 “the land of tunnels.” According to its researchers, Hezbollah, after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, created a defensive plan to confront the Israeli invasion, which includes dozens of centers. Operations equipped with underground networks and tunnels linking important centers in Beirut, the Bekaa and the South, in which the cumulative length of the tunnels reaches several hundred kilometers.
In an interview with The Times of Israel last January, Tal Perry, one of Alma’s directors, confirmed that “there is evidence that North Korea, which has historical experience in digging tunnels in mountainous and rocky areas, helped Hezbollah.” In Lebanon, the party has also established civilian companies that are said to be digging tunnels, and the United States has already imposed sanctions on the Lebanese environmental non-governmental organization “Greens Without Borders” on charges of covering up the construction of underground warehouses and ammunition storage tunnels. After the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah established a defensive plan to confront the Israeli invasion, which includes dozens of operations centers equipped with underground networks, and tunnels linking important centers in Beirut, the Bekaa, and the south, with the cumulative length of the tunnels reaching several hundred kilometers.
According to the newspaper, Israeli researchers have identified the presence of “nearby tunnels,” which are simple corridors that allow Hezbollah forces to carry out attacks on Israeli camps, and broader “tactical tunnels” designed to allow the launching of ballistic missiles from underground. Alma also indicated the presence of “ Explosive tunnels” under strategic points, which are filled with explosives that can be ignited at the right moment to cause earthquakes and landslides.
In 2018, Israel announced that it had discovered 6 “attack tunnels” about 40 meters deep below the Blue Line that represents the border with Lebanon. They are hundreds of meters long and have not yet reached the surface. Olivier Basso says, “I believe their location was determined by acoustic sensors.” Digging it requires very complex work over several weeks.” Researcher Jean-Loup Semaan confirmed, in an article published in 2015, that “Hezbollah and the Iranians have built tunnels and hideouts in the region over the past two years, which in the long run could be of great value in the event of a new conflict with the Israeli army.”
The newspaper pointed out that the Israeli ground attack that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening if Hezbollah’s missile attacks on northern Israel do not stop, will be faced - as is the case in Gaza - with a well-equipped secret army and a constant and invisible threat, and this explains the opposition of the military and intelligence. The strategic specialists of the Israeli emergency government like this attack.
Liberation linked the postponement of the final ultimatum that was given to Hezbollah last January until the end of this February, to the challenges of underground fighting, and what it requires of engineering specialists, specialized units, and military divers trained in caves, who are able to remove mines in difficult places. Including the evacuation of casualties.
As in the case of Gaza, where Israeli forces were reported to have destroyed only a small portion of the tunnel network, destruction may not be a primary objective. Rather, the ignition of explosives or the spread of gas or water from tunnel to tunnel over a very long distance could neutralize these tunnels. As for the “sponge bombs” promised by the Israelis, which are capable of releasing a large amount of expanding foam without exploding, they exist only in the heads of their strategists, according to the newspaper’s conclusion.
Tunnels, as a strategic weapon, made headlines in the war between Hamas and Israel after the deadly attack launched by the movement, classified as a terrorist, on Israeli areas on October 7, 2023, as Benjamin Netanyahu's government made destroying the movement's tunnel network one of its main goals. With the Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, talk of the tunnel war has returned to the forefront after the Israeli army showed footage it said was inside Hezbollah tunnels. What about the history of these tunnels in Lebanon? How did the party use them to confront Israel? Has this tactic become a double-edged sword for the party after the killing of its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in a fortified underground shelter? 2006.. The origin of the story Reports date the construction of tunnels in Lebanon back to the 1950s, when they were used to transport supplies before becoming a strategic weapon. The Palestinians themselves, men and women, worked to dig these tunnels, including the Kfarhalda tunnel in Batroun, Lebanon, according to a study by Rosemary Sayegh entitled “Palestinians from Peasants to Revolutionaries.” In the 1960s, the tunnels gained strategic importance for the Palestinians in West Beirut, as they linked Tal al-Zaatar and Karantina. A French book entitled “Les rumeurs dans la guerre du Liban: Les mots de la violence” refers to “tunnels in Tel al-Zaatar to hide water and weapons, but they were not suitable for living, and a tunnel linking Tel al-Zaatar to the camps in the Karantina area” during the same period. This is confirmed by the news archives from the eighties, where a news item reported by United Press International on October 7, 1982, mentions that “the Lebanese army found a complex network of tunnels built by Palestinian fighters to protect themselves from Israeli attacks and to hide huge quantities of military supplies.” At the time, a Lebanese officer commented by saying that these tunnels may not be new, while confirming at the same time that there are no available maps for this network: “We do not know how long these tunnels are. Some are new and some are old. We do not have maps. They may be booby-trapped. Who knows?” “These concrete-lined tunnels, one of which stretched two miles from west to south Beirut, linked Palestinian strongholds in the city to the three refugee camps south of Beirut — Sabra, Shatila and Burj al-Barajneh,” the report said. “Reporters touring the tunnels saw massive bunkers filled to the brim with modern explosives ranging from Russian Grad rockets to American mortars and howitzers. Some of the passages were no more than three feet high, while others were large enough to hide up to eight pickup trucks. Eight tunnel entrances were found in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Two of the entrances led to bunkers filled with more than 500 boxes of North Korean-made artillery shells and American mortar shells. It was not known whether Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps were aware of the maze, or how many had taken shelter inside.” In the Shatila camp, near the city’s sports stadium, “steel doors lead down a sandy slope to a 10-foot-high tunnel, big enough for seven or eight pickup trucks. At the bottom of the slope, the tunnel narrows into an eight-foot-wide bunker, the floor of which is a wooden walkway. In the tunnel, I found dozens of Soviet Grad rockets stacked against the wall in wooden boxes, and at least 50 boxes containing smoke bombs, artillery shells of various calibers, and mortar shells.” In southern Lebanon, the story of tunnels was linked to Hezbollah, but Israel experienced a miniature tunnel battle up close when it faced the great escape of its prisoners in the largest prisoner escape in the world from Ansar prison on August 8, 1983, where more than 30 prisoners escaped by digging a tunnel with spoons and knives between their prison and an area outside the barbed wire. Israel, in turn, was accused in the 1980s (1983) of digging tunnels after occupying southern Lebanon, “to connect the river from its bed to the occupied territories in the Galilee so that some of its water, which is suspected to be between 100-500 million m3, can flow down to the occupied territories (...) and to claim the existence of a subterranean geological connection between the Litani and the tributaries of the Jordan (...) and to demand its share of the internationally recognized river,” according to what we read in a study by Dr. Mohsen Muhammad Saleh in the Palestinian Strategic Report (2018-2019). Galant confirmed that the evacuation decision will continue until Hezbollah is pushed north of the Litani River. Galant confirmed that the evacuation decision will continue until Hezbollah is pushed north of the Litani River. As for Hezbollah's tunnels, reports indicate that the pace of their construction increased in 2006, specifically after the "July War," with close coordination between Iran and Korea. This makes them older than the tunnels in Gaza, which were originally built with Egypt to overcome the Egyptian and Israeli economic blockade of the Strip in 2007. The party’s tunnels consist of an octopus network, according to a report issued by the Israeli research institute Alma in 2021, and extend to Syria, according to the French newspaper Liberation. The party has also tried to reach Israel, as appears from the offensive tunnels found in December 2018 under the Blue Line (American research entitled The Coming Conflict with Hezbollah ). Within Lebanon itself, there are dozens of kilometers that connect the various sub-regions within southern Lebanon and three strategic areas for Hezbollah: 1- Beirut suburb area - Hezbollah's central headquarters. 2- The Bekaa region - the operational and logistical backbone of Hezbollah. 3- South Lebanon - Hezbollah's defensive positions. The tunnels are used for various purposes, which can be summarized, according to Lebanese political analyst Muhammad Nimr, as military and logistical objectives. As for military objectives, they serve as a link between regions and allow the transfer or launch of weapons, as they are equipped with platforms designated for some missiles. It also serves as a staging and hiding place for militants. The Times of Israel referred to the tunnel war as “fighting ghosts” in reference to Hamas militants, and this description was repeated in the context of the Lebanese war. On the logistical level, tunnels are used to connect command centers, and this is what we saw in the suburb, with the use of missiles that reach a depth of 40 meters under the southern suburb of Beirut to reach the location of Hezbollah leaders. From primitive tunnels to missile city Hezbollah tunnels have evolved from the primitive form known as narrow tunnels, sufficient for individuals to move, to advanced tunnels capable of transporting trucks. This can be concluded from a simple comparison between a model of a tunnel dating back to the “July 2006 War” provided by Hezbollah in a Hezbollah tourist complex in Mleeta in southern Lebanon in 2010, and a video showing a model of the party’s modern tunnels, published by the latter under the title “Our Mountains Are Our Treasures” in August 2024. A plan proposed by Israeli General Amir Avivi suggests that the tunnels' outlets are close to the homes of the attackers. In his book, “No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come,” which was inspired by Hamas’s tunnels, he states that “the tunnel is a short walk away, and the attacker sneaks into the tunnel and heads to the launch site. At the appointed time, he fires a barrage of rockets before hiding back in it.” Hezbollah’s tunnels in southern Lebanon had ceilings high enough to walk under, ventilation systems, lighting and bathrooms. “Dozens of command bunkers were built within the network, divided into two or three rooms each,” Avivi said. The shape of the tunnel has changed and become more complex over the years, as shown in the video “Our Mountains Are Our Storehouses” published by Hezbollah, which is classified as a terrorist group in the United States. The tunnels are no longer exclusively defensive, but their network has become more complex, and with it their role has become offensive as well. According to the video, the tunnels are wide enough to accommodate convoys of trucks and motorcycles, and include weapons stores and platforms for launching "Emad 4" missiles. It appears as a parallel world underground, characterized by lighting and ventilation. The official Iranian Mehr News Agency described it as the “Missile City” in the south, while a report by the American Fox News network likened it to a “subway.” In January 2019, the Israeli army announced the discovery and destruction of "cross-border attack tunnels," some of which were under Lebanese border villages that had been repeatedly attacked but not destroyed. The Israeli army announced in 2019 the destruction of tunnels extending from southern Lebanon to Israel. An Israeli report also warned of the potential of these tunnels to turn into a graveyard for any facility that might be dug underneath them. Two Israeli engineers confirmed in a June 2023 report on the Alma Foundation website that Hezbollah relies on the tunnels to cause a great deal of destruction, sometimes by creating voids. In this context, they pointed out that "digging tunnels under the Ramim mountain range overlooking Kiryat Shmona is capable of causing parts of the mountain to collapse and endangering citizens and their homes. Therefore, the party is focusing on entering the Galilee Radwan unit using tunnels filled with explosives." An American report in the Washington Post at the end of last September quoted engineers and strategic experts as saying that Hezbollah had dug tunnels directly into Israel. The Israeli army launched Operation Northern Shield in January 2019, after finding 6 tactical tunnels. The operation ended with their destruction. Victory, even if "temporary" A study on “Neutralizing Hezbollah ’s Tunnel Project” indicates that the purpose of the tunnels is to enable Hezbollah’s commando unit (Radwan) cells to infiltrate Israel and help it achieve a “victory image” by occupying (even temporarily) an IDF compound, base, or main road. Therefore, any Israeli plan focuses on exposing and destroying the tunnels and improving intelligence and detection capabilities. In parallel, according to the study, Israel seeks to send a message to Iran by uncovering the tunnels and calling on it to take action to curb Hezbollah and not to interfere in any military clash that erupts between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel also sends a message to the Lebanese authorities, considering that UN Agreement No. 1701 also includes revealing the map of the tunnels. Retired Israeli Colonel Kobi Lavi told Alhurra about Israel’s efforts to push parties “capable of intervening to convince Hezbollah to stop digging tunnels, but Hezbollah continued digging and supplying them with weapons.” Israel relies on ground forces to destroy it, noting the difference compared to Gaza, which is that the land is mountainous, which means that the party paid a lot to develop it while it progressed slowly and with the help of other countries. Most of the tunnels were dug in the Western Bekaa, Beirut and southern Lebanon, and Israel knows that this was not done on the instructions of the Lebanese state. Israel is forced today, in light of the lessons of July 2006, to clear these tunnels, where there are entire warehouses full of ammunition, using various means developed for this purpose, and to destroy the tunnels and make them incapable of launching attacks in the future,” according to Lavi. As for Hezbollah, Lebanese journalist Qassem Qassir revealed that digging the tunnels in itself is an achievement and that “the party is waiting for the ground operation.” He stressed that he possesses "distinctive capabilities in the tunnel war, and this is what the developments during two days of military battles and the number of dead have shown. Israel will also go to the negotiating table whenever it pays a heavy price. The party is also constantly assessing the field matters and studying all options as it fights a new battle and benefits from all developments." Shelters or graves? After the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on September 28 in a fortified location under residential buildings, the question arose about the effectiveness of tunnels and hidden infrastructure in general and the vulnerabilities that made the elimination of the party leader possible. Israeli army targeted Nasrallah in a precise strike on the southern suburb Israeli army targeted Nasrallah in a precise strike on the southern suburb In this context, Nimr drew attention to the comparison between Hamas tunnels and the party's tunnels, noting that the latter are more complex due to the rugged mountainous nature. Although this is supposed to make it more fortified, the situation has changed due to two factors: the development of Israeli weapons compared to the 2006 war and the human factor in the espionage scenario, according to Nimr. As the weapons used by Israel have become more sophisticated, the tunnels have become less safe. Israel possesses American GBU missiles, which are capable of penetrating buildings and concrete fortifications. Israel used these missiles, each of which costs about $145,000, in its war on Lebanon in 2006. In the scenario of assassinating Nasrallah, it targeted his “fortified” underground military headquarters with 80 bombs. The second factor that weakened the role of the tunnels is human, as Israel was able to obtain coordinates or what it called “golden information” thanks to agents. The information focused, among other things, on the destructive power needed to penetrate the fortifications and reach the center, which is part of the tunnel system, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, while a report in the French newspaper Le Parisien indicated that an “Iranian agent” provided Israel with the sensitive information. Hasna Bouharfouch Read also The raid killed several Hezbollah military leaders. Lebanon An unexpected source of information revealed Hezbollah to Israel Fires burn as a result of rockets launched from Lebanon into northern Israel, next to the city of Kiryat Shmona near the… Lebanon Lebanese Health Ministry: 25 killed in Israeli raids on Friday Former US President Donald Trump Elections.. 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