Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon (Wednesday, 19 December 2018), issued a statement ahead of the UN Security Council meeting today on Hezbollah's terror tunnels, which violate Israeli sovereignty and UNSC Resolution 1701. He also answered reporters' questions:

In response to the question of whether the Lebanese army knew in real time that the tunnels are being dug:

"To the best of our knowledge the answer is no. I think very few people knew about it period. But they know about it now. And they should be there. They should be going to the entry piers of these tunnels. They should be uncovering them and neutralizing them. They're not doing that and it's their obligation to do.

There's a very big difference in what we're doing which is basically trying to protect ourselves in the sky from the openly declared goal to destroy us.

Hezbollah says, 'We're going to destroy you. We're going to wipe you off the face of the earth. We're helping Iran that wants to wipe you off the face of the earth. And we're going to bring weapons into Lebanon itself and weapons into Syria from Iran for that end. Your destruction.'

So clearly we have the right of self-defense. This is what we're doing. This is not a right of self-defense; this is part of the propagation of aggression towards the annihilation of Israel and the conquest of its territory. Declared by Hezbollah. So I think there's no way to make a similarity there.

It's like saying the police acted against the bank robbers, so they use violence too. Well give me a break. There is no symmetry between the bank robber and the police and there is no symmetry between the arsonist and the fire brigade. We're the fire brigade. "

In response to the question regarding the factories in Lebanon that are improving the accuracy of missiles, which the Prime Minister revealed in September:

"Yes, these three sites were shut down by Hezbollah and after I spoke at the UN."

In response to the question of whether there is any precedent in which the Lebanese army and the international community have acted in accordance with the Prime Minister's request that they now act to change the situation in Lebanon:

"I think it's been a long time coming but UNIFIL has finally filed a report that documents Hezbollah aggression against us. UNIFIL was tasked with preventing smuggling of weapons into southern Lebanon and to prevent aggressive actions across that border after the Second Lebanon War. When the Second Lebanon War ended, there were about 15,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon aimed against Israel, mostly in southern Lebanon. Today, there are about 150,000. Ten times that. There has not been a single report of a single rocket or a single missile filed by UNIFIL.

So the fact that we have finally a report from UNIFIL confirming these terror tunnels that are being dug into Israel, violating Security Council 1701, violating Israel's sovereignty and violating the basic norms between nations I think is important. But it's obviously long overdue. And what has to be done now is to have UNIFIL do something serious. We await to see that.

But in fact the Lebanese army has done nothing of the kind. Very often cooperates with Hezbollah. It certainly doesn't challenge Hezbollah and it often directs its weapons against us. And we saw that just now. They came to the border. What did they do? We're digging on our side of the border, cleaning up these terror tunnels, and the Lebanese army is pointing their weapons against us. Maybe they should direct it against Hezbollah which puts their people in jeopardy and targets our people hiding behind their people, the Lebanese civilians. The Lebanese army has been a total failure in this regard. They failed to take action to control their own territory. They failed to take action to prevent the use of their territory against the territory of a neighboring state. And they failed to dislodge the tyrannical Hezbollah. They haven't even tried."

In response to the question of whether, in light of Russia's crucial role in the region, the Prime Minister has a message for it as a member of the Security Council

"Well I spoke to President Putin the other day, pending this meeting today and I asked that Russia take the right stance, which is to condemn Hezbollah and not be either supportive of them or neutral with this. Because anyone who really supports international norms and who wants to prevent, Russia often says it wants to prevent another war, well the way to prevent another war is to prevent Hezbollah from acting aggressively against Israel from Lebanon or from that matter from Syria. Same thing for Iran. I've said that to Mr. Putin many times, many times. And I repeated that message the other day when I spoke with him."

In response to the question regarding the extent to which exposing the tunnels is preparing the groundwork for international legitimacy for any future Israeli action in Lebanon:

"I don't understand why I should keep it secret. Hezbollah wants to keep it secret. We have to expose them. I mean they're saying they're just acting defensively which is rubbish. I think it's important to expose them.

I don't believe in the school of being timid and cowering and not speaking out truth. We speak the truth. We tell the world what it is. There is such a web of lies, so many lies and so many smoke screens that are put forward and we want to tear away these lies, these masks of deceit and show things as they are.

Hezbollah is a tool of Iran. Both are committed to our destruction. They use criminal methods, illegal methods, war criminal methods, commit war crimes against our civilians and they commit war crimes against Lebanon's civilians. The Lebanese government, which should be the first to challenge this and to protest this, is doing nothing at best and colluding at worst. That's the truth. That has to be exposed, condemned and acted against. And there is no way to do that with a blanket of silence."