Following Hezbollah’s recently released video highlighting its network of tunnels and underground facilities, experts said the lessons Israel has learned from tunnel warfare in Gaza will be valuable, but that Hezbollah’s underground will be more formidable. “We’ve gained an immense amount of experience in Gaza dealing with complex underground threats,” Prof. Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University.
According to Rabi, Hezbollah’s tunnel network predates the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and the terror group is constantly upgrading it. Hezbollah, said Rabi, “learned a lot relating to geology, building techniques, and more. Now, when Hezbollah builds tunnels, they are more difficult to find, much more complex and significantly more resistant to bunker buster bombs.” He also noted that some of these tunnels are more like underground cities.
Since it began ten months ago, Israel’s Swords of Iron operation has been thorough and persistent in routing out terrorist activities. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have uncovered and destroyed hundreds of terror tunnels, an unprecedented phenomenon in modern warfare. While ground-based terror attacks against Israel have been common, the growing problem of tunnel networks poses an ongoing and significant threat. These tunnels are increasingly being used for the smuggling of weapons, adding a dangerous dimension to Israel’s defense and security challenges. We have faith that the IDF will always be up to facing any challenge in protecting the one and only Jewish State.