Gantz: Israel must retain freedom to act against Hezbollah, cannot return to Oct. 6

National Unity lawmaker Benny Gantz says that Israel must only agree to a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah if it grants the IDF freedom to act against the Iran-backed terror group should it violate the terms of the agreement.

In an address at the annual Ogen Conference, Gantz, a former defense chief, says that the residents of northern Israel “must be protected only by the IDF. Not [international observers] UNIFIL, not the Lebanese army, and not a European force.”

“We must not return to the reality of October 6,” he says, referring to the period before the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel, which was followed a day later by the start of the near-daily skirmishes with Hezbollah on the northern border.

He says that any ceasefire agreement must build upon UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which urged the Lebanese government to dismantle Hezbollah and establish full control over its territory, and Resolution 1701, which called for Hezbollah forces to retreat away from the Israeli border, north of the Litani River.

“What is clear,” he says, “is that any arrangement must allow the IDF freedom of action, both against immediate threats and against renewed bolstering of Hezbollah.”

He says that the IDF must continue its offensive activity against Hezbollah in a “more powerful manner, including against Lebanese infrastructure, if that is what is needed” until Israel’s required conditions for a ceasefire are met.