Government right to not launch Gaza operation since Hezbollah stronger — ex-general

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says the government made the right decision last month not to embark on a wide-scale military operation against Hamas in Gaza, so it could focus on tackling Hezbollah in the north.

“Unlike Gaza, which is isolated — by us from one side and Egypt on the other side — Lebanon is an open country. The Iranians can land, walk and bring in and establish whatever they want,” he says, referring to the cross-border attack tunnels the Tehran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group has built, and which Israel started to destroy this morning.

“This is why Hezbollah is so strong, much stronger than Hamas. And that’s why, from an Israeli point of view, it’s more important to keep the stability in the south as much as possible and allocate [resources] and focus on north, where the threat is much bigger,” adds Amidror, who served in the IDF for 36 years, including as director of the Intelligence Analysis Division.

“There is no question that Hezbollah is much bigger problem [than Hamas]. Much bigger,” Amidror stresses, noting that the organization has 120,000 missiles and rockets, which are more accurate and have a longer range than the mortars Hamas possesses.

— Raphael Ahren