The “Hizbullah” tunnels reportedly discovered by the Israeli army on the Blue Line last week are “old and deserted” tunnels that Israel is “exploiting for political ends,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

“The tunnels that Israel and the UNIFIL are talking about are old and deserted, more than half of which have collapsed a long time ago,” a security source told the daily on condition of anonymity.

“The Israeli enemy has already announced long time ago that they discovered these tunnels but did not make a fuss about it because it is old and tattered. However, Israel is using these tunnels today for political gains no secret to anyone,” added the source

“The Lebanese authorities are insisting on non existence of any new usable tunnels. They are waiting for the UNIFIL’s official report to build on the matter," he said.

On Thursday, the UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Stefano Del Col,

along with a technical team, confirmed during a site inspection the existence of a tunnel near Metulla in northern Israel close to the Blue Line.

Israel had said Tuesday that it started an operation to destroy alleged Hizbullah tunnels on the Lebanese border.

An Israeli army spokesman has said the "attack tunnels" were not yet operational.

He declined to say how many had been detected or how they would be destroyed, but stressed all activities would take place within Israeli territory.