Israeli military finds another cross-border tunnel

Jerusalem, Jan 13 (IANS) The Israeli military on Sunday said it has found another cross-border tunnel allegedly dug by the Hezbollah militant group.

The tunnel, which is the "longest and most detailed yet", reaches a few tens of metres into Israel and stems 800 meters into Lebanon, Xinhua news agency quoted the Army as saying.

With this, "Operation Northern Shield" -- which aims to expose and neutralize attack tunnels which infiltrate into Israeli territory -- has been completed, a senior army official said.

The intent of the tunnels, according to Israeli officials, was to launch a massive attack against in the north of the country in order to begin an offensive.

"According to our intelligence, there are no longer any cross-border attack tunnels from Lebanon into Israel now," he told reporters.

The official did not confirm the total number of tunnels found so far, but a count of previous announcements makes this one the sixth.

"There are however still facilities that Hezbollah has dug within Lebanese territory that have yet to cross into Israel and we are monitoring them."

The Lebanese government is responsible for everything happening in its territory, according to the Israeli Army statement.

Hezbollah has not yet commented on the issue.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006. Since then, there has been tension along the border with isolated violent incidents.

Both Israel and the UN say the tunnels violate the fragile cease-fire reached at the end of the 2006 war.

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