An Israeli soldier lowers a camera down a hole into a border tunnel dug from Lebanon into Israel, as seen on the Israeli side of the border, near the town of Metula December 19, 2018. (Reuters)

Tel Aviv - Nazir Majali

A high-level delegation from the US Army held on Thursday a tour inside the longest cross-border Hezbollah attack tunnel that was discovered running into Israeli territory from Lebanon during this past winter’s Operation Northern Shield.

The US team wants to study the Israeli technology used in uncovering those tunnels and benefit from such technique in fighting the phenomenon of tunnels that Washington started discovering at the borders between the US and Mexico.

On Wednesday, the Israel Forces revealed a Hezbollah attack tunnel that was discovered during this past winter. It said the tunnel was “the longest and most significant,” before it shut it down.

Asharq Al-Awsat learned that the US delegation already met with Israeli commander of the Baram Regional Brigade, Col. Roi Levi, who explained to them how the tunnels were discovered.

Levi said Hezbollah planned to send thousands of fighters in an infiltration attack on military targets in northern Israel as a surprise-opening maneuver in a future war.

He said the Lebanese party would have owned an incredible weapon, had Israel not discovered the tunnels.

According to the Israeli Army, the tunnel was dug to a depth of 80 meters, was a kilometer long and penetrated 77 meters into Israeli territory. It began close to the Lebanese village of Ramiya with an exit close to the Israeli villages of Shtula and Zar’it.

Lebanese Army personnel, UNIFIL forces and men from the Hezbollah-linked environmental group “Green Without Borders” were seen on Thursday observing what was happening at the entrance of the sixth discovered tunnel, when the US team and reports arrived.

Last December, Israel launched Operation Northern Shield to find and destroy Hezbollah cross-border tunnels. A month later, the military announced it had found all of the passages and was working to demolish them.

Spokesperson Avichai Adrai said on Thursday, “From today, we can say Hezbollah has no more tunnels.”