Gantz: Israel must target Iran directly in response to attacks by proxies

Faced with attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and other Iranian proxies, Israel “must target Iran directly,” Benny Gantz declares.

Speaking with the press ahead of his National Unity party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Gantz states that “the solution to putting an end to the attacks lies in Tehran.”

“We today have the opportunity to catalyze a ‘strategic flip’ against Iran and its proxies. We must capitalize on the opportunity. It would be a strategic mistake of historic proportions not to,” he says.

“Israel must bring the hostages home, and the nations of the region together with the United States must work together with Israel to remove the threat of a nuclear Iranian regime,” he states, calling for a comprehensive deal with Hamas covering all the hostages held in Gaza, even if their release is spread over a period of time.

“We must use this time to do what Netanyahu has refused to do for over a year — replace the Hamas government,” he continues, stating that while Hamas’s commanders have largely been eliminated and its infrastructure destroyed, Israel “continues to let it run the Strip” by failing to allow an alternative force to take its place.

“The State of Israel has not made a real decision to replace Hamas. It is not working with our friends in the world to establish an administration to run the Gaza Strip as I proposed a year ago. Such plans exist in the defense establishment, but this is something that can only be led by a determined political echelon, one that is not bound by messianic dreams and coalition needs,” he declares.

He stresses that even if a new government focused on de-radicalization is established in Gaza, Hamas will not disappear overnight, requiring the IDF to continue operating in Gaza in the future. Current “ninth-graders will still be fighting in Gaza” when they grow up and are conscripted, he says.

On the topic of enlistment, Gantz cites an internal Finance Ministry report slamming the government’s ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill, stating that if it had accepted his proposal for a mobilization outline for the Haredi public, “we would already have thousands of young soldiers on the front lines.”

“The conscription outline they want to pass is a car without an engine,” he adds, calling on Likud lawmakers Yuli Edelstein and Yoav Gallant not to support the bill.