Despite the Oct. 7 attack and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip for almost a year, security experts continue to warn that the greatest threat to Jerusalem actually comes from northern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has developed a sophisticated tunnel system.
Over the past two decades, the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, long backed by Iran, has built a network of tunnels stretching more than 100 miles across southern Lebanon.
While the existence of the tunnels has been known for decades, their crucial role in arming Hezbollah became evident once again during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, where the terrorists not only rely on them for operational rearmament and mobility, but also to house hostages captured by Hamas almost a year ago.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Destroyed about 80% of Hamas tunnelsHezbollah's tunnels, which have remained largely untouched since the war in Gaza began, are thought to be far more sophisticated and “considerably larger.” Report According to the ALMA Research and Education Center, a nonprofit that studies security challenges along Israel's northern border.
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An Israeli military guided tour takes visitors inside an underground tunnel on the Lebanese-Israeli border on June 3, 2019. (Jack Guess/AFP via Getty Images)
Hezbollah is believed to have reportedly taken “inspiration” from Pyongyang and the tunnels it developed after the Korean War, and began digging tunnels in close coordination between Iran and North Korea after the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Iran considered North Korea an “expert authority on tunnel-digging” because of its experience in digging tunnels for military use when North Korea attempted to dig a tunnel across the Korean Demilitarized Zone in an attempt to invade the area just north of the South Korean capital, Seoul.
The tunnel and its uses were never realised by the authoritarian state, Two of the four disabled tunnels The discovered facility can reportedly accommodate up to 30,000 troops per hour, along with weaponry such as armored personnel carriers, tanks and artillery, a playbook that Hezbollah has relied on in its fight against Israel.
The report found that with advice from North Korea – whose ties may date back to the 1980s – Hezbollah built two types of tunnels in southern Lebanon: “attack tunnels and infrastructure tunnels.”
The image, provided on Friday, shows a comparison of tunnels dug by North Korea and Hezbollah. (ALMA Research and Education Center)
The attack tunnels are intended for similar operational uses as those in North Korea, and at least six tunnels leading into Israeli territory were discovered by the IDF during Operation Northern Shield, which began in December 2018.
Alma's research found that some of Hezbollah's tunnels can also transport ATVs, motorcycles and other “small vehicles,” but did not say how many terrorists they could accommodate.
The tunnels are equipped with “underground command and control rooms, weapons and supply depots, field clinics, and specific shafts used to launch missiles of all kinds,” the report said, noting that weapons such as rockets, surface-to-surface missiles, anti-tank missiles, and anti-aircraft missiles could be launched from “shafts” in the tunnels. “These shafts are hidden, camouflaged, and cannot be detected from the surface.”
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The tunnel is believed to link the capital Beirut, where Hezbollah has its central headquarters, with a logistics base in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border in southern Lebanon.
This image provided on Friday shows the area where Hezbollah has infiltrated into Lebanon. (ALMA Research and Education Center)
“We call this regional network of tunnels 'Hezbollah's tunnel land.'” The Alma Report was first published in 2021 It is described in detail, and it is noted that the tunnel system resembles a “subway” of tunnels rather than one long tunnel.
The second series of tunnels dug by Hezbollah, known as the Infratunnels, would form an underground network in and near villages in southern Lebanon, establishing a first and second “line of defense” against an Israeli incursion, a project of “enormous scale,” according to the ALMA report.
The tunnels are estimated to be around 28 miles long, raising questions about how a terrorist group could have built such a sophisticated system without opposition from the Lebanese government.
Hezbollah terrorists took part in a training exercise in the village of Alamta in southern Lebanon in May 2023. (AP/Hassan Amar)
“Hezbollah is trying to keep the location, routes and internal structure of these tunnels secret. [It] confiscate territory, prevent civilians from entering certain areas, [its] “Its presence and influence in government is growing,” ALMA researcher Boaz Shapira told Fox News Digital.
Shapira said Hezbollah not only enjoys the support of around 40-50 percent of the Lebanese people, but is “far better funded, better organized, better trained and better armed” than the Lebanese government, army, police and even the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. Approximately 10,500 peacekeepers It was introduced in Lebanon after the 2006 war.
Spanish United Nations peacekeepers stand on a hill overlooking the Lebanese-Israeli border on January 10, 2024.
Hezbollah has long posed a major threat to Israel, having cooperated with authoritarian states such as Iran and North Korea.
But according to Shapira, as well as former Israel Defense Forces Major General Jacob Amidror, Iran's growing influence in Lebanon has pushed it to the top of Israel's security threats list.
“The Lebanese government is too weak to stand up to Hezbollah,” Amidrour told Fox News Digital. “Everything that matters is decided by Hezbollah, not the government.”
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Hezbollah is 50,000 terrorists According to Shapira, its influence extends to almost every sector of Lebanon's security services.
“Taking action against Hezbollah would be seen as collaboration with Israel and essentially treason in Lebanon, as it was last year against the Palestinians,” he said. “So no one in the army has any motivation to challenge Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah terror units are training in southern Lebanon, close to the Israeli border. (AP/Hassan Amar/File)
Shapira said Lebanon's demographics have changed over the past few decades from being a Christian majority to now being Muslim-majority, although the U.S. State Department has said Lebanon's Muslim population is roughly evenly split. Between Shiites and Sunnis.
“This trend is also happening in the army, which means that almost every Shiite soldier in the army has a brother, cousin or friend who is a Hezbollah terrorist,” Shapira said.
Amidror, a former national security adviser to Israel's prime minister who served in the Israel Defense Forces for 36 years and is a distinguished fellow at the American Jewish Institute for National Security Studies, told Fox News Digital that he believes Israel needs to take an aggressive approach to countering Hezbollah.
Hezbollah fighters form a human barrier during the funeral procession for Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in the southern outskirts of Beirut on August 1, 2024. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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“We should launch a war against Hezbollah,” he said, noting that the timing of that operation is the main variable to be determined.
“It will not be an easy task. It will be a very devastating war for us and for Lebanon,” the retired major general said. “Let's not forget that at least 50 percent of their missiles were hidden in populated areas.”
“The casualties will be enormous. [a] “It's a devastating war for us and for them,” Amidorah continued. “That's why fighting these organizations is so problematic, because they're fighting from within their own population. [and their] The target is the Israeli people.
“When you fight from within civilians and your targets are civilians, the fight becomes very complicated,” he added.
