BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A new
report released by the ALMA Center has exposed a large-scale inter-regional tunnel network belonging to Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah, stretching across Lebanon and designed to allow the movement to move fighters and weapons.
The report, titled “Land of tunnels” was released on Thursday by the center which researches security challenges facing the Zionist regime.
According to the report authored by Major (res.) Tal Beeri, Hezbollah began its tunnel project after the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and “is much larger than the Hamas ‘metro’ project in the Gaza Strip.”
The network supposedly connects the Beirut area, Hezbollah’s central headquarters, the Beqaa area used by the group as its logistical operational rear base, to Southern Lebanon. According to the report they allow for “hundreds of fighters, fully equipped, to pass stealthily and rapidly underground.”
The tunnels are also large enough for motorcycles, ATVs, and other small vehicles to move through them to allow for troops to maneuver from place to place “for the purpose of reinforcing defense positions or for carrying out an attack in a safe, protected, and invisible manner.”
The cumulative length of the network can be in the hundreds of kilometers and in one area stretches some 45 kilometers, connecting the area of Sidon to the Beqaa.
The tunnels contain underground command and control rooms, weapons and supply depots, field clinics, and specified designated shafts used to fire missiles of all types (rockets, surface-to-surface missiles, anti-tank missiles, and anti-aircraft missiles).
Beeri wrote that the tunnels are also used for artillery attacks, with the shafts opening for a short period of time before being immediately shut. These shafts are hidden and camouflaged and cannot be detected above ground.
On domestic front, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned of a “psychological war” against Lebanon’s resistance movement, saying the media propaganda campaign is meant to prepare the ground for a crisis in the Middle Eastern country.
He made the remarks on Wednesday amid growing outrage at anti-Hezbollah comments made by Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi following a retaliatory rocket attack by the resistance movement on the Israeli-occupied territories.
Nasrallah cautioned against sectarian, political and tribal reactions on social media that spark hatred of friends and allies.
“Today, the most dangerous and important tool of the enemies’ propaganda war is social networks…which are both a threat and an opportunity. We must turn the threat into an opportunity and use it,” he added.
Nasrallah also urged Hezbollah supporters to “fortify” themselves against “the psychological war” and refrain from accusing others without reasons or insulting individuals over disagreements.
“Our country is in a critical stage and we are in the midst of a hard and long battle,” he said. “The supporters of the resistance must be vigilant and bear some level of responsibility. Every person who expresses his opinion is respected and insults are not allowed.”
On Wednesday, the Zionist regime struck an area in southern Lebanon in response to alleged rocket fire towards the occupied lands.
Two days later, Hezbollah units hit open fields near Israeli positions, using dozens of rockets. Israeli media said that Hezbollah’s retaliatory rocket attack sent settlers in the occupied Golan Heights and Galilee scrambling for shelters.