A newly dug tunnel was found inside the forest east of Beirut... and the army is investigating

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Today, Monday, members of the Al-Fanar municipal police in the Matn district of Mount Lebanon Governorate discovered a tunnel inside a pine forest adjacent to the Zaitaria area, a part of which is known to support Hezbollah.

Immediately, members of the Lebanese Army Intelligence and the Engineering Regiment came to the site to inspect the tunnel east of Beirut and determine its nature, while an unidentified person fled the scene immediately upon the arrival of the security forces.

While private information from Al-Arabiya/Al-Hadath reported that the initial detection showed that the tunnel was recently dug, as it was constructed a short time ago, indicating that it was small in size and no ammunition was found inside it.

The sources also added that investigations are currently focused on determining the timing of the start of tunnel digging and the reasons behind its construction.

These developments came days after a Lebanese judicial source revealed that security forces arrested two men suspected of belonging to Hezbollah in the Dahr al-Baydar area on the international road between Beirut and the Syrian border while they were transporting 500 kilograms of explosive materials. The source said on October 10 that the shipment included “250 kilograms of TNT explosives and 250 kilograms of C4 high explosives,” according to Agence France-Presse.

For his part, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam confirmed the seizure of "hundreds of kilograms of explosive materials," pledging not to relax "in pursuing and expanding the investigation to determine the identity of all those involved in this criminal operation, and those behind them, and to reveal their plans and goals."

Salam also added, on October 12, that his government “will deal with the required firmness with any weapon possessed, transferred, or used outside the framework of legality.”

He also recalled that C4 was used "in a number of notorious political assassinations in Lebanon's modern history."

On the other hand, Hezbollah acknowledged last Thursday that the shipment of explosive materials confiscated by the authorities belonged to it, saying that “its use was directed against Israel.” Party MP Hassan Fadlallah added in a television statement that since the car was stopped, the party has contacted “the security and judicial agencies” and informed them that “the car and its cargo belong to it.”

Fadlallah also continued that the party demanded “the immediate release of the detainees and the recovery of the car and what is inside it” because they are “capabilities” that the party uses against Israel, according to his claim.

In addition, he considered that “the Prime Minister’s haste to place what happened in the context of preparations for assassinations is a seditious campaign that increases division among the Lebanese,” adding that Hezbollah “with all types of its weapons is directed exclusively against Israel.”

Hezbollah was accused of assassinations targeting political and media figures opposed to the former Syrian regime, especially between 2005 and 2008, noting that the Special International Tribunal for Lebanon issued rulings against individuals belonging to it in the case of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.