This is the moment soldiers discovered huge Hezbollah weapons caches and tunnels beneath the floor of a clothing store. The exact date and time are classified, but shocking video shows IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers uncovering a manhole in the floor of a retail outlet that leads to a warren of tunnels in the Lebanese town of El-Khiyam earlier this month.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, a military officer said that inside the tunnels there were accommodation, weapons, ammunition racks and fuel tanks for the use of Hezbollah militants.
The IDF said the 25-meter-deep network was used as a command center by the Hezbollah terrorist organization. A statement said: “Hezbollah establishes its terrorist infrastructure within civilian areas, putting Lebanese residents at risk.
“The construction of underground infrastructure within civilian areas in Lebanon is a deliberate and reprehensible exploitation of Lebanese civilians to further Hezbollah’s terrorist objectives.
“The IDF will continue to maintain a forward defense posture to protect Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, divert threats from Hezbollah to Israeli communities, and deter threats.”
Speaking to Express, a military officer said: “At first it looked like a regular clothes shop, but very quickly you could see a hole on the floor and inside the hole we found a lot of arms and ammunition.
“When we went down 25 meters, it was a command center complex, not a civilian place. Hezbollah uses civilian areas and even a clothing store to hide its military infrastructure.”
The military official said the tunnel was discovered this month after nearly three weeks of fighting with Hezbollah militants.
He said, “This complex must have taken at least six months to build and every night we are discovering such places. There are actually more tunnels, but because this tunnel is so different from the usual one, it looks different.”
A second round of talks between Israel and Lebanon were scheduled to begin in Washington on Thursday.
Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli positions in southern Lebanon on Thursday and targeted Israeli soldiers in the southern village of Taybeh and shot down a drone in the Majdal zone. The militants also claimed they had resumed attacks on Israel, claiming it was a violation of a 10-day ceasefire by Israel that came into effect on Friday.
The Israeli military said it intercepted an “air target” in southern Lebanon the same day. Israel has also accused Hezbollah of ceasefire violations.
The head of UN peacekeeping operations said he expected a potential replacement for his forces in southern Lebanon to be “probably smaller” than the current one that has been in place for almost half a century.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the UNIFIL operation, which is nestled in a tense region where Hezbollah and Israeli forces have repeatedly battled militants, has faced pressure from recent funding cuts.
The force’s tenure expires at the end of the year. UN officials face a June 1 deadline to submit a proposal for a replacement force.
