Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said that the IDF is updating its plans to strike Iran’s nuclear sites and is ready to operate independently.
Gantz added, in an interview with “Fox News”, that Israel has identified many targets inside Iran, which would harm its ability to develop an atomic bomb.
He said in his first interview with an American media: “If the world stops them before then, that’s very good, but if not, then we must stand independently, and we must defend ourselves.”
Intelligence assessments indicate that Iran will likely target Israel, using proxies in Syria and Lebanon, during 2021, according to Fox News.
Gantz said that the Iranian-backed Lebanese “Hezbollah” group has hundreds of thousands of missiles, as a secret map of targets shared with “Fox News” shows many of the missiles installed between civilian areas along the Israeli border.
“This is a target map. Every single one of it has been examined legally, practically and by intelligence, and we are ready to fight,” Gantz added.
Fox News
The annual IDF intelligence report indicated that Israel was preparing for several days to fight with Hezbollah, and local media reports stated that 3,000 Lebanese targets would be hit every day during the upcoming conflict, with the aim of killing 300 Hezbollah fighters every 24 hours.
Israel is expected to continue striking Iranian-backed groups in Syria, which Gantz said are helping to facilitate the transfer of weapons to Lebanon, according to the network.
Since the beginning of 2020, Israel has bombed more than 500 Iranian-linked sites in Syria with air strikes, according to Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi.
Last week, US President Joe Biden ordered an additional airstrike in Syria after several missile attacks against US interests in Iraq.
While the Biden administration has indicated its willingness to return to the Iran nuclear deal, Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Gantz, believe that the issue of Iran’s proxies should be addressed in any future agreement.
“American policy must be American policy, and Israeli policy must remain the Israeli policy,” Gantz said.
Source: Fox News
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