(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Thursday, 6 December 2018), met with foreign ambassadors in the north, close to the IDF units that are working to expose and neutralize the tunnels. He updated them on Operation Northern Shield and Hezbollah's intentions to use the tunnels against Israel. The Prime Minister emphasized that the Hezbollah tunnels are only one expression of Iran's aggression in the region.

Prime Minister Netanyahu asked the ambassadors to condemn the violation of Israeli sovereignty and join in the demand to impose increased sanctions on Hezbollah.

The ambassadors were briefed by GOC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Strick and GOC Planning Maj.-Gen. Amir Abulafia, and toured the area of the exposed tunnel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu:

"We are systematically and decisively denying our enemies the tunnels weapon. We are doing this with Hamas, and with Hezbollah; we will do whatever is necessary.

Whoever attacks us – is taking his life into his hands. Hezbollah knows this and so does Hamas.

I told the ambassadors that they need to unequivocally condemn this aggression against us by Iran, by Hezbollah and by Hamas, and – of course – to also strengthen the sanctions against these elements.

This operation is just beginning but in the end, the tunnels weapon, in which Hezbollah has invested so much, will not exist and will not be effective."

The Prime Minister added:

"Israel expects an unequivocal condemnation of Hezbollah, the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran, a condemnation from the Lebanese government and a demand that it stop giving its approval for the use of its territory for these attacks against Israel. All of this will come up at the upcoming meeting of the UN Security Council which Israel has demanded. This is an important political and diplomatic step that complements our operational and engineering effort to deny Hezbollah and Iran the tunnels weapon."