terror tunnels in order to attack Israel, take Israeli citizens hostage and spread terror. Hezbollah’s tunnel project is another example of the dangerous strengthening of Hezbollah that is funded, supported and directed by Iran,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The Lebanese Armed Forces went on high alert in southern Lebanon after the IDF began the operation, a security official told the Lebanese al-Nahar news outlet.

A Lebanese military official told The Associated Press that Lebanese troops and military intelligence agents, along with UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon, were observing the border.

Al-Nahar quoted Hezbollah propaganda outfit War Media as saying that Lebanese border villages were not preparing for a wider outbreak of hostilities.

The army said the operation was taking place in Israeli territory, though spokesman Ronen Manelis, asked by Army RadioIt was meant to be a speech that proved once and for all the Ukip leader is big in America. Instead, Nigel Farage's tub-thumping speech to the great and good of the US right was made to a near-empty room.

The Ukip leader headed to the Gaylord Conference Center in Maryland, US, to make an appearance for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but looked out to see almost all of the seats empty.

He received a gushing introduction from Breitbart News editor Alexander Marlow, who said he is often seen with a cigarette and beer in his hands and described him as “the only politician to tell the truth about the Islamist threat.” But most people were fixated on the fact that Farage was addressing an almost-empty hall, despite