"Tonight we will begin to neutralize and destroy the tunnels," said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus.

Since launching an operation to cut off the tunnels on December 4, the army says it has located four underground passageways infiltrating Israeli territory.

It issued a warning to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group with which Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.

"We have at our disposal infantry units, armoured units, stand-by aviation, naval units, all synchronized with clear orders and ready for a wide range of scenarios," said Conricus.

The deployment was a "message to Hezbollah signifying that we will not tolerate any approach or attempt to interfere in our efforts to destroy these cross-border attack tunnels," he said.