JERUSALEM, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said on Tuesday it had uncovered an "attack tunnel" that runs from Lebanon into northern Israel, amidst an operation to locate and destroy such tunnels.
The announcement came a few hours after the army said it had launched overnight the "Northern Shield" operation to expose and destroy cross-border attack tunnels dug by the Lebanon-based militia of Hezbollah.
The military issued a statement saying its troops located a cross-border tunnel in the southern area of Kafr Kila, a village in southern Lebanon. The tunnel "infiltrated into Israeli territory and was intended to harm Israeli civilians," the army said.
"At this time, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is carrying out an operational and engineering process to neutralize the tunnel," the statement read.
"The tunnel did not pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in the surrounding area," it added.
Head of the international media branch at the IDF's Spokesperson's Unit, Jonathan Conricus, told reporters during a phone briefing that this is "the first stage of the operation" in which the aim is to "expose and thwart" the tunnels.
Conricus said Israeli forces have been put on "heightened alert" but no reserve forces have been called up, and the area around the northern Israeli city of Metula, which is next to the Lebanese border, has been declared a closed military zone.
Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia in southern Lebanon, had a month-long war in 2006 that ended in a cease-fire.
