Jerusalem (CNN) Israel has launched an operation along its northern border with Lebanon to "expose and thwart cross border tunnels" which it says have been dug by Hezbollah, the Israeli army said on Tuesday.

Hours after announcing the operation, Israel's military said it had begun work to neutralize such a tunnel near the Israeli town of Metula, which sits right along the border. The military said the tunnel began in a civilian house in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kela, immediately west of Metula.

CNN crews witnessed excavators and heavy machinery operating on the Israeli side of the border wall between the two locations.

The tunnel entered Israeli territory, the military said, but it did not pose an immediate threat to Israeli civilians.

Its cross-sectional dimensions were 2 meters by 2 meters, IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in a conference call with reporters, making it taller and wider than tunnels dug by Hamas under the Israel-Gaza border. The tunnel's length was estimated to be 200 meters, Conricus said.

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