Every Israeli knows Hezbollah's tunnel digging is considered one of the not-so-surprising 'surprises' for Israel by the organization's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah for the next conflict. But a new research paper has been published that outlines the potential usage of these tunnels and perhaps, exposes a broader plan by Hezbollah.

The Alma Educational Research Center for Israel's Security Challenges in the Northern District recently published a detailed study on the development of Hezbollah's underground capability in Lebanon, which includes a chain of tunnels, mainly near the border with Israel. The starting point of the study is that Hezbollah currently has offensive tunnels directed at Israel.

The Hezbollah movement has increased its underground capabilities by building many tunnels near the borders of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, a tactic developed by Iran's Quds Forces for Hezbollah and Hamas — Alma Research and Education Center pic.twitter.com/6RDEVrmmkI

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) June 17, 2023

The report states that one of the strategies that Nasrallah is preparing for the next conflict is explosive tunnels that will be dug under settlements or security installations, and their explosion will cause great damage. “Therefore, they can destroy a settlement or an entire facility," says Tal Beeri, one of the authors of the research paper.

According to him, explosive tunnels are a very old military technology: "During the First World War, the Germans and the British dug hundreds of such tunnels under the no man's land and the long lines of fortifications, and caused a lot of damage to the other side. Nowadays, most of the underground warfare in the world takes place in the Middle East. During the civil war In Syria, the Syrian opposition organizations Jabhat Al-Nusra and ISIS dug tunnels and used explosives to attack a Syrian army position. As a result of the explosion, the building partially collapsed, and immediately after that, the opposition forces began ground attacks on the area" The use of explosive tunnels is also known in the Gaza Strip, as was more common in the early 2000s.

“Israel” Fears Hezbollah’s ‘Land of Tunnels’: A Potential Surprise, A Threat Equal to A Tsunami https://t.co/07XLubL7yJ

— Joe Catron (@jncatron) June 17, 2023

"Hezbollah's proven capability, and the fact that Israel has uncovered six Hezbollah attack tunnels in the past, and no one knows if they have all been discovered - all of these strengthen the assessment that they definitely exist and that they are part of Nasrallah's arsenal of surprises. We emphasized in the report that we have no concrete information about tunnels Such, but it is hard for us to believe that Hezbollah will give up such deadly capabilities in the next war."

Beeri compiled the document with engineer Yehuda Kfir, whose a reservist commander of the construction unit of the Home Front Command in the IDF. According to the study, the Israeli military facilities and towns near the border are convenient targets for Hezbollah, which can relatively easily attack them.