(Washington) Former Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said in Washington on Sunday that it was time for Israel to address the situation in the north of the country against the Lebanese Hezbollah and called upon to confront Iran.
“The northern hour has come and, in fact, I think we are behind on that,” said Benny Gantz, who was attending a Middle East Discussion Forum (MEAD) in the US capital, saying Israel had “made a mistake” in evacuating so many people from the north of the country after the Hamas attack on October 7.
Thousands of Israelis have been forced to flee the north, while since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire almost daily on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The pro-Iranian Lebanese Islamist movement claims to support its ally Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.
Mr Gantz, a former army chief and head of the central National Union party, left the government coalition in June after serving in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, which was set up after the Hamas attack and has since been dissolved.
PHOTO NIR ELIAS, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Benny Gantz
“I have believed for many months that we have enough forces to deal with Gaza and that we should focus on what is happening in the north of the country,” he said.
“In Gaza, we have reached a decisive point in the campaign. We can do whatever we want in Gaza,” he said, as Israeli army operations continue there pending a ceasefire with Hamas.
“I think we should try to reach an agreement to free our hostages, but if we can’t reach an agreement in the coming days or weeks, we should go north.”
“I don’t think we should wait any longer. […] “We have the capacity to do that,” he said, including “hitting Lebanon, if that proves necessary.”
Beyond that, the former general believes that “the real question is Iran.”
“Hamas is an old story […] “The question of Iran and its proxies throughout the area and what they are trying to do is the real question,” he said.
The war broke out after an unprecedented attack on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip by commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which resulted in the death of more than 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to a count carried out by AFP from the latest available official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory operation has left more than 40,939 dead, mostly civilians, and triggered a major humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, according to Hamas’s health ministry.