World
Hezbollah relies on 'sophisticated' tunnel system backed by Iran, North Korea in fight against Israel
Despite Israel’s nearly one-year-long war with Hamas in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks, security experts continue to sound the alarm that Jerusalem’s greatest threat actually lies to the north in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has developed a sophisticated tunnel system.
Hezbollah, an Islamic terrorist organization that has long had the backing of Iran, has over the last two decades developed a network of tunnels that stretch more than 100 miles in cumulative length throughout southern Lebanon.
Though the existence of the tunnels has been known for decades, the significant role they play in arming Hezbollah has once again come to light during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, where terrorists have not only relied on tunnels for operational rearmament and maneuvering capabilities but also to house hostages taken by Hamas nearly a year ago.
While it is estimated that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have eradicated roughly 80% of Hamas’ tunnels, Hezbollah’s tunnels, which have largely remained untouched since the war in Gaza began, are believed to be far more sophisticated and “significantly larger,” according to a report by the Alma Research and Education Center, a nonprofit organization that researches Israeli security challenges along its northern border.
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A guided tour by the Israeli army on June 3, 2019, shows the interior of a tunnel under the Lebanese-Israeli border. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Hezbollah is believed to have begun mining its tunnels after the Second Lebanon War in 2006 in close coordination between Iran and North Korea after Tehran reportedly derived “inspiration” from Pyongyang and the tunnels that it developed in the aftermath of the Korean War.
Iran deemed North Korea a “professional authority on the subject of tunneling” due to its experience in digging tunnels for military use when it attempted to drill tunnels across the Korean Demilitarized Zone in an attempt to militarily invade areas just north of Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
While the tunnels and their intended use were never realized by the authoritarian nation, two of the four neutralized tunnels uncovered were reportedly capable of accommodating up to 30,000 troops per hour along with armaments like armored personnel carriers, tanks and field artillery – an operational blueprint Hezbollah has turned to in its fight against Israel.
The report found that Hezbollah under the advisership of North Korea – a relationship that may have begun as far back as the 1980s – built two types of tunnels across southern Lebanon, “offensive tunnels and infrastructure tunnels.”
This image provided on Friday shows the comparison between tunnels dug by North Korea and Hezbollah. (Alma Research and Education Center)
The offensive tunnels were intended for similar operational use as North Korea’s, and at least six tunnels were discovered by IDF forces that led into Israeli territory during Operation Northern Shield, which began in December 2018.
Alma’s research found that some of Hezbollah’s tunnels are also capable of transporting ATVs, motorcycles and other “small vehicles,” though it did not specify the number of terrorists that they could accommodate.
The tunnels are equipped with “underground command and control rooms, weapons and supply depots, field clinics and specified designated shafts used to fire missiles of all types,” the report said, noting that arms like rockets, surface-to-surface missiles, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles can be fired from “shafts” in the tunnels. “These shafts are hidden and camouflaged and cannot be detected above ground.”
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The tunnels are believed to connect the capital of Beirut, where Hezbollah’s central headquarters is located and its logistical base in the Beqaa Valley near the Syrian border, to southern Lebanon.
This image provided on Friday lays out the areas where Hezbollah has infiltrated in Lebanon. (Alma Research and Education Center)
“We call this inter-regional tunnel network ‘Hezbollah’s Land of the Tunnels,’” the Alma report first released in 2021 detailed, noting the tunnel system is more akin to a “metro” of tunnels rather than one long tunnel.
The second series of tunnels Hezbollah mined, known as the infrastructure tunnels, form an underground network in and near southern Lebanese villages that establishes the first and second “lines of defense” against an Israeli invasion – a project of “enormous magnitude,” according to the Alma report.
One such tunnel is estimated to be nearly 28 miles long, prompting the question as to how the terrorist organization was able to get away with building such a sophisticated system without opposition from the Lebanese government.
Hezbollah terrorists take part in a training exercise in Aaramta village in southern Lebanon in May 2023. (AP/Hassan Ammar)
“Hezbollah does try to keep the locations, routes, internal structure, etc., of these tunnels a secret. [It] does this by expropriating territories, by preventing civilians from entering into certain areas and by taking advantage of [its] presence and influence in the government,” Boaz Shapira, a researcher with Alma, told Fox News Digital.
Shapira said Hezbollah not only has the support of roughly 40%-50% of the Lebanese population, it is “much better funded, organized, trained and armed” than the Lebanese government, army, police or even the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which has a force of some 10,500 peacekeeping troops in Lebanon and that were put in place after the 2006 war.
Spanish U.N. peacekeepers stand on a hill overlooking the Lebanese border with Israel on Jan. 10, 2024.
Hezbollah’s cooperation with authoritarian nations like Iran and North Korea has long made it a major threat to Israel.
But its growing power within Lebanon has moved it to the top of the list when it comes to Israeli security threats, according to not only Shapira but also former IDF Major Gen. Yaakov Amidror.
“Lebanon’s government is too weak to counter Hezbollah,” Amidror told Fox News Digital. “Everything important is decided by Hezbollah, not by the government.”
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Hezbollah is believed to have as many as 50,000 terrorists and, according to Shapira, its sphere of influence has extended to nearly every branch of Lebanon’s security apparatus.
“Taking action against Hezbollah would be perceived as cooperation with Israel and basically as treason in Lebanon, and in the past year also against the Palestinians,” he said. “That means that no one in the army has any incentive for challenging Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah terror forces train in southern Lebanon close to the Israeli border. (AP/Hassan Ammar/File)
Shapira said demographics inside the once predominately Christian nation have shifted over the last several decades, and it now has a majority Muslim population – though the U.S. State Department analyzes the breakdown in Muslim populations in Lebanon as nearly equally divided between Shiite and Sunni groups.
“This trend is happening in the army as well. That means that almost every Shiite soldier in the army has a brother, cousin, friend that is a Hezbollah terrorist,” Shapira said.
Amidror, a distinguished fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America after serving as Israel’s former national security adviser to the prime minister and a 36-year veteran of the IDF, told Fox News Digital he believes Israel needs to take a proactive approach when it comes to countering Hezbollah.
Hezbollah fighters form a human barrier during the funeral procession for top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Aug. 1, 2024. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“We should initiate the war against Hezbollah,” he said, noting that the timing of its operation is the main variable that needs to be determined.
“It will not be an easy job. It will be a very, very devastating war for us and for Lebanon,” the retired major general said. “Remember that at least 50% of their missiles had been hidden within populated areas.
“The casualties will be huge, [a] devastating war for us and for them,” Amidror continued. “This is why it is so problematic to fight these organizations, because they are fighting from within their own population, [and their] targets are the Israeli population.
“When you fight from within civilians and your targets are civilians, it’s very complicated to fight it,” he added.
Over two-thirds of large companies struggle to fill their IT roles. What are the highest-paid jobs? Which countries are most in need?
As the IT sector continues to grow, thousands of European companies are having trouble filling the many positions available.
According to 2024 Eurostat data, 57.5% of EU businesses can’t recruit all the necessary ICT specialists.
The gap between labour demand and actual employment has grown by 20% in the past ten years.
Large businesses are facing the biggest challenges.
Sixty-eight per cent of them are unable to fill all their ICT specialist positions, followed by medium (59.2%) and small-sized enterprises (53.4%).
Germany, the Czech Republic, Malta, Austria, and Luxembourg are the countries most in need of ICT specialists, with at least 65% of businesses facing shortages.
The percentages are even higher for large enterprises: 84% in Malta, 80% in Germany, 79% in the Czech Republic, 78% in Slovenia, 76% in Austria, 75% in Luxembourg, 73% in Latvia, 72% in Hungary and 71% in Croatia.
Spain, Poland, and Bulgaria have the least hiring problems, although at least 30% of companies in these countries still face ICT shortages.
What are the highest-paid IT positions?
The main difficulties in recruitment, according to Eurostat, are a lack of applications, insufficient qualifications and experience, and high salary expectations.
Salaries in the ICT sector have consistently outpaced average wages in Europe in the last decade, according to the 2024 OECD Digital Economy Outlook. In the EU, in particular, annual wages grew by 0.24% compared to 0.20% in the rest of the economy.
Recruitment specialists Robert Walters have listed the top-paid ICT jobs in countries including Germany, which seems to be struggling the most in the EU to recruit specialists.
The highest-paid role is Chief Information Technology Officer, with an annual base of €150k for employees with at least three years of experience, to €180k for those with at least eight years.
The consultancy role in the highest bracket is the SAP/ERP one, with a base of €100k. (SAP ERP is an enterprise resource planning software.)
Data engineer and data scientist positions are both in the €100-120k bracket.
Video editor • Mert Can Yilmaz
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World
India steps up diplomatic relations with the Taliban as rival Pakistan loses influence in Afghanistan
India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, met acting Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai last week, making a strong leap forward in bilateral relations.
While India has been gradually increasing its engagement with the Taliban, this latest meeting represents the highest-level talks since the Islamic group’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Notably, this was the second meeting between officials from New Delhi and Kabul in just two months, indicating both countries’ readiness to step up diplomatic engagement.
“We shouldn’t overstate the impact of Pakistan’s tensions with the Taliban on India’s stepped up engagement with the Taliban. New Delhi had already taken some small steps toward Taliban engagement soon after the Taliban’s return to power, before tensions crept into the Taliban’s relations with Pakistan,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, tells Fox News Digital.
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Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, addresses the media at the Parliament House in New Delhi on Dec. 7, 2022. (Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During the discussions, Misri emphasized the “historic friendship” and “strong people-to-people contacts” between the two nations. Meanwhile, the Afghan foreign minister described India as “an important and economically significant country in the region.”
According to a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the talks focused on strengthening bilateral relations, addressing security concerns, engaging in development projects and enhancing humanitarian assistance.
India is among several countries actively facilitating trade, aid and medical support to Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. The country, which hosts thousands of Afghan refugees, also pledged to provide “material support” for their rehabilitation back in Afghanistan.
“New Delhi’s outreach to the Taliban is driven by the view that closer engagement can help India better pursue its security and strategic interests in Afghanistan – and these include strengthening trade and connectivity links and ensuring India isn’t threatened by terrorists on Afghan soil,” Kugelman explained.
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The discussions also touched on enhancing trade via the Chabahar Port in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province. India has been developing the Chabahar Port to enable goods to bypass ports in its rival, Pakistan. This strategic port, which lies just across the border from Pakistan, could provide landlocked Afghanistan with an alternative route to receive and send goods, circumventing Pakistan.
Afghan refugees living in Pakistan rally against India in Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
The meeting between India and the Taliban could unsettle Pakistan, which shares borders with both countries. India and Pakistan are long-standing rivals, having fought three wars over Kashmir since both countries gained independence in 1947. This meeting also takes place amid deteriorating relations between the Taliban regime and Pakistan, once considered friendly neighbors, as cross-border violence escalates.
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The talks occurred just days after India “unequivocally” condemned Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan in late December. These rare airstrikes resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, including women and children. Pakistani officials claimed the strikes targeted militants of the Pakistani Taliban. Islamabad frequently accuses the Pakistani Taliban of using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies.
People gather at the border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Chaman, Pakistan, Aug. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Jafar Khan)
The diplomatic engagement also follows the Taliban’s appointment of an acting consul in the Afghan consulate in Bombay in November, the same month India’s joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs visited Kabul. Although no foreign government, including India, has officially recognized the Taliban administration since it swept to power in 2021, India reopened its embassy in Kabul less than a year after the Taliban’s return to power.
“Islamabad has already seen its relations with its former Taliban asset take a major tumble,” Kugelman, said. “Now it must grapple with the fact that its rival India may fill the vacuum left by Pakistan’s distancing from the Taliban. No matter how you slice it, this is bad news for Pakistan all around.”
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Several factors, in addition to deteriorating Pakistani relations, may have led India to strengthen its relationship with Afghanistan. The weakening of Iran, due to conflicts in the Middle East and internal issues, has diminished its influence over the Taliban. At the same time, Russia, one of India’s closest allies, is moving toward recognizing the Taliban government in Afghanistan, even calling the group a partner in combating terrorism. Moscow perceives a significant security threat from Islamist militant groups across countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East, especially after losing Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane at a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 17, 2021. (AP)
China is also enhancing its connections with the Taliban, causing India to be wary of Beijing’s increasing influence. Additionally, India’s approach may be influenced by President-elect Trump’s imminent return to the White House. The Trump administration initially brokered the U.S.-Afghanistan withdrawal deal. Trump’s re-election could now introduce new dynamics to the region, prompting India to safeguard its long-term interests.
In contrast, the United States has severed diplomatic ties with Kabul since its chaotic withdrawal from war-torn Afghanistan. Washington maintains a policy of sanctions and isolation toward Taliban leaders. But now, nations in the region are evaluating the implications of a new Trump administration for the Taliban.
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