Tuesday, July 13, 2010
There was some skepticism about the claims by Gen. Paul Vallely in the video I linked to back in this post, Video: Former US General Paul Vallely Warns of Chemical Attacks Against Israel, concerning his claim that Hizballah was said to be tunneling under Israel's northern border. Now comes this article at JPost that would seem to lend credence to the claim: Hizbullah tunnels under border
Concerns are mounting in the defense establishment that Hizbullah may be digging tunnels from Lebanon to Israel to attack a border community or IDF outpost.
While the IDF has been worried that Hizbullah will try to kidnap soldiers - as it has done twice in the past - the latest fears surround the possibility that terrorists will cross into Israel through tunnels, enter a border community like Shlomi and barricade themselves inside a home with civilians.
In addition, there is concern that Hizbullah will use these tunnels to plant explosives underneath and next to IDF posts. This tactic was used successfully in 2004 by Hamas, which detonated an explosives tunnel under an IDF outpost in southern Gaza, killing five soldiers.
Army commanders deployed along the border worry that a future Hizbullah strike would involve not only rocket and mortar fire, as the IDF projects, but also a simultaneous attack aimed at both kidnapping a soldier and infiltrating a border community...
So the claim was not just a product of questionable geology/geography knowledge on Vallely's part.
