Gantz: Military focus should shift to Lebanon, Iran; ‘We are late on this’

Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz says Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border, warning that “we are late on this.”

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border fire, with the Lebanese terror group saying it is acting in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in the ongoing war in Gaza.

“We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north,” Gantz says, speaking in Washington, DC at a Middle East forum where he also says Iran and its proxies are “the real issue.”

“The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this,” the former army chief and centrist politician adds.

Gantz says Israel made a mistake in evacuating much of the north of the country as hostilities with Hezbollah flared following the October 7 Hamas onslaught that triggered the Gaza war.

“In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign,” he says. “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 says.

“The story of Hamas is old news,” he adds, saying instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”