President Trump may seek to pull troops from Syria, but Iran and its Hezbollah terror surrogate remain firmly entrenched there and in adjacent Lebanon.
That’s clear from their threats to Israel: This week IDF forces uncovered the fifth in a series of surprisingly sophisticated tunnels built by Hezbollah and designed to sneak terrorists into Israel from Lebanon.
Jerusalem also staged airstrikes against storage and logistics facilities near Damascus that are used by Iran to ship weapons to Hezbollah, which has fought alongside Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.
Israel will not “accept the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
Yet it’s the tunnels, all of which were later destroyed, that are of special concern. Built in urban areas, they were surprisingly large and equipped with ventilation shafts and electricity, and they reached at least 80 feet underground. All of them terminated near Israeli population centers.
They appeared designed for use in a future war, when Hezbollah fighters smuggled underground would join operatives infiltrating above ground, backed by missile fire from Syria and Lebanon.
That, as Netanyahu noted, constitutes “a double war crime: It’s targeting Israeli civilians while hiding behind Lebanese civilians.” It also violates a 2006 UN resolution requiring Hezbollah to remain north of Lebanon’s Litani River.
This week the Security Council debated the tunnels but took no punitive action. Leaving Israel to counter the menace alone.