During his trip to Washington, MK Benny Gantz remarked that if no deal is reached for the hostages, Israel should initiate an open war in the north.
"The time for the north has come. We are late, I think we should make a deal to return the hostages even at a very painful price, but if we don't reach a deal in at most a few weeks, we should go to war in the north and ensure that we can return the residents to their homes," Gantz stated.
He further explained, "We can reach this goal, even if it requires harming the state of Lebanon itself. I do not see any other way, unfortunately. Resolution 1701 was a resolution aimed at ending a war, and now we must arrive at a resolution from which onward we will act offensively proactively, against any deviation and against any threat to our borders, with emphasis on a threat of infiltration into our communities. It cannot be that after October 7th we will continue with the security policy that was before it."
Reflecting on past decisions, Gantz added, "I think we made a mistake by evacuating such a large population. We should have evacuated only the settlements and kibbutzim adjacent to the border. I am also responsible for this decision, which was based on the insecurity we experienced at the beginning of the war."
* Arutz 7 contributed to this article.
