Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz has suggested that Israel should redirect its attention towards Hezbollah and the situation on the Lebanese border, cautioning that “we are late on this.”
The ongoing conflict has seen frequent cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Iran-supported Hezbollah, with the Lebanese terror group claiming its actions are in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war.
“We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north,” Gantz stated during a Middle East forum in Washington, DC, where he also labeled Iran and its allies as “the real issue.”
“The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this,” the former military leader and centrist politician remarked.
Gantz criticized Israel’s decision to evacuate a significant portion of the northern regions following the escalation with Hezbollah after the Hamas attack on October 7 that instigated the Gaza conflict.
“In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign,” he noted. “We can conduct anything we want in Gaza. We should seek to have a deal to get out our hostages but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.”
“We are capable of… hitting the state of Lebanon if needed,” he asserted.
“The story of Hamas is old news,” he continued, emphasizing instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”
{Matzav.com Israel}