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Herzog Announces Return of Ties with Jordan to the Right Path

A general view shows a stretch of the King Abdullah Canal near the Jordanian border town of Shuna Shamalia (North Shuna), some four kilometers from the Wadi al-Arab Dam on March 12, 2018. AFP photo
A general view shows a stretch of the King Abdullah Canal near the Jordanian border town of Shuna Shamalia (North Shuna), some four kilometers from the Wadi al-Arab Dam on March 12, 2018. AFP photo
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Herzog Announces Return of Ties with Jordan to the Right Path

A general view shows a stretch of the King Abdullah Canal near the Jordanian border town of Shuna Shamalia (North Shuna), some four kilometers from the Wadi al-Arab Dam on March 12, 2018. AFP photo
A general view shows a stretch of the King Abdullah Canal near the Jordanian border town of Shuna Shamalia (North Shuna), some four kilometers from the Wadi al-Arab Dam on March 12, 2018. AFP photo

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has announced the return of diplomatic ties with Jordan to the right path.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday received a telephone call from Herzog. The former congratulated him on being sworn in as president last week.

A reliable source characterized the call as “friendly and warm.”

The Jordanian monarch “expressed satisfaction over the return of the diplomatic relations to their proper trajectory,” the Israeli president’s spokesman said.

Herzog’s office said the two agreed to remain in contact “to work together to advance cooperation between the states, for the benefit of their nations and the entire region.”

The Israeli president was quoted as saying that he wanted to strengthen economic and tourism ties between the two countries.

A statement carried by Jordan’s official Petra news agency said King Abdullah called for increased efforts to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Last week, Israel struck a deal to sell Jordan an additional 50 million cubic meters of water this year and allow Jordanian imports to the West Bank to go up from $160 million in 2020 to about $700 million.

The deals were concluded after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and King Abdullah met in Amman, followed by a public meeting on Thursday between Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.

Gilad Sharon, the son of late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, led a campaign against the water deal.

Neglecting the fact that Jordan will pay 40 cents for each cubic meter of water (which is four folds the usual cost), Sharon considered that this deal gives Israel’s water for free.

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Arab World

Israel Unearths Hezbollah's Web of Tunnels in Southern Lebanon

Communication equipment inside a Hezbollah tunnel uncovered by the Israeli army in 2019 (AFP)
Communication equipment inside a Hezbollah tunnel uncovered by the Israeli army in 2019 (AFP)
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Israel Unearths Hezbollah's Web of Tunnels in Southern Lebanon

Communication equipment inside a Hezbollah tunnel uncovered by the Israeli army in 2019 (AFP)
Communication equipment inside a Hezbollah tunnel uncovered by the Israeli army in 2019 (AFP)

Israeli forces have spent much of the past year destroying Hamas’ vast underground network in Gaza. They are now focused on dismantling tunnels and other hideouts belonging to Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.
Scarred by Hamas’ deadly raid into Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza, Israel says it aims to prevent a similar incursion across its northern border from ever getting off the ground, The Associated Press said.
The Israeli military has combed through the dense brush of southern Lebanon for the past two weeks, uncovering what it says are Hezbollah’s deep attack capabilities — highlighted by a tunnel system equipped with weapons caches and rocket launchers that Israel says pose a direct threat to nearby communities.
Israel’s war against the Iran-backed militant group stretches far inside Lebanon, and its airstrikes in recent weeks have killed more than 1,700 people, about a quarter of whom were women and children, according to local health authorities. But its ground campaign has centered on a narrow patch of land just along the border, where Hezbollah has had a longstanding presence.
Hezbollah has deep ties to southern Lebanon
Hezbollah, which has called for Israel’s destruction, is the Arab world’s most significant paramilitary force. It began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas' attack. After nearly a year of tit-for-tat fighting with Hezbollah, Israel launched its ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1 and has since sent thousands of troops into the rugged terrain.
Even as it continues to bolster its forces, Israel says its invasion consists of “limited, localized and targeted ground raids” that are meant to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure so that tens of thousands of displaced Israelis can return home. The fighting also has uprooted more than 1 million Lebanese in the past month.
Many residents of southern Lebanon are supporters of the group and benefit from its social outreach. Though most fled the area months ago, they widely see the heavily armed Hezbollah as their defender, especially as the US-backed Lebanese army does not have suitable weapons to protect them from any Israeli incursion.
That broad support has allowed Hezbollah to establish “a military infrastructure for itself” within the villages, said Eva J. Koulouriotis, a political analyst specialized in the Middle East and militant groups. The Israeli military says it has found weapons within homes and buildings in the villages.
Hezbollah built a network of tunnels in multiple areas of Lebanon
With Israel’s air power far outstripping Hezbollah’s defenses, the militant group has turned to underground tunnels as a way to elude Israeli drones and jets. Experts say Hezbollah's tunnels are not limited to the south.
“It’s a land of tunnels,” said Tal Beeri, who studies Hezbollah as director of research at The Alma Research and Education Center, a think tank with a focus on northern Israel’s security.
Koulouriotis said tunnels stretch under the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah's command and control are located and where it keeps a stockpile of strategic missiles. She said the group also maintains tunnels along the border with Syria, which it uses to smuggle weapons and other supplies from Iran into Lebanon.
Southern Lebanon is where Hezbollah maintains tunnels to store missiles — and from where it can launch them, Koulouriotis said. Some of the more than 50 Israelis killed by Hezbollah over the past year were hit by anti-tank missiles.
In contrast to the tunnels dug out by Hamas in the sandy coastal terrain of Gaza, Hezbollah's tunnels in southern Lebanon were carved into solid rock, a feat that likely required time, money, machinery and expertise.
An Israeli military official said that using prior intelligence, Israel had found “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of underground positions, many of which could hold about ten fighters and were stocked with rations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military rules, said troops were blowing up the tunnels found or using cement to make them unusable.
The group used tunnels during the monthlong 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, but the network has been expanded since, even as a United Nations cease-fire resolution compelled Lebanese and UN forces to keep Hezbollah fighters out of the south.
In mid-August, Hezbollah released a video showing what appeared to be a cavernous underground tunnel large enough for trucks loaded with missiles to drive through. Hezbollah operatives were also seen riding motorcycles inside the illuminated tunnel, named Imad-4 after the group’s late military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in Syria in 2008 in an explosion blamed on Israel.
Hezbollah's tunnels could be hindering Israel's mission
Israeli troops are pushing through southern Lebanon using tanks and engineering equipment, and air and ground forces have struck thousands of targets in the area since the invasion began.
The Israeli military recently said it found one cross-border tunnel that stretched just a few meters into Israel but did not have an opening. Israel also exposed a tunnel shaft that was located about 100 meters (yards) from a UN peacekeepers’ post, although it wasn't clear what the precise purpose of that tunnel was.
Israel says the tunnels are stocked with supplies and weapons and are outfitted with lighting, ventilation and sometimes plumbing, indicating they could be used for long stays. It says it has arrested several Hezbollah fighters hiding inside, including three on Tuesday who were said to have been found armed. The Israeli military official said many Hezbollah fighters appear to have withdrawn from the area.
Lebanese military expert, Naji Malaeb, a retired brigadier general, said he assessed that Hezbollah’s tunnels were preventing Israel from making major gains. He compared that achievement to the war in Gaza, where Hamas has used its tunnels to bedevil Israeli forces and stage insurgency-like attacks.
Israeli authorities insist the mission in Lebanon is succeeding. It says it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters since the ground operation in Lebanon began, though at least 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed during that time.
Israel has encountered Hezbollah’s tunnels before. In 2018, Israel launched an operation to destroy what is said were attack tunnels that crossed into Israeli territory. Beeri said that six tunnels were discovered, including one that was 1 kilometer (1,000 yards) long and 80 meters (87 yards) deep, crossing some 50 meters (yards) into Israel.
Israel believes Hezbollah was planning an Oct. 7-style invasion
For Israel, the tunnels are evidence that Hezbollah planned what Israel says would be a bloody offensive against communities in the north.
“Hezbollah has openly declared that it plans to carry out its own Oct. 7 massacre on Israel’s northern border, on an even larger scale,” Israeli military spokesman Rear. Adm. Daniel Hagari said the day troops entered Lebanon.
Israel has not released evidence that any such attack was imminent but has expressed concern that one might be launched once residents return.
Former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel last month while in an underground bunker, had signaled in speeches that Hezbollah could launch an attack on northern Israel.
In May 2023, just months before Hamas’ attack, Hezbollah staged a simulation of an incursion into northern Israel with rifle-toting militants on motorcycles bursting through a mock border fence bedecked with Israeli flags.
Hezbollah officials have at times framed calls for an attack against Israel as a defensive measure that would be taken in times of war.