JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel is updating its plans to strike Iran’s nuclear program and has already identified several potential targets inside the Islamic Republic, Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News Thursday.
"If the world stops them before, it's very much good. But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves," Gantz said.
The Israeli military’s annual intelligence assessment said Iran will likely use its proxies in Lebanon and Syria to attack Israel this year, but Israel does not expect an all-out war.
Gantz said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group has thousands of rockets, many of them located near civilian areas on the Israeli border.
Tension is already rising between Israel and Hezbollah. Last month, Israel’s military conducted an exercise simulating a war with Hezbollah. The exercise included mock airstrikes on 3,000 targets in a single day.
“We are ready to fight," Gantz said.
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Israel is also expected to continue targeting pro-Iranian militias in Syria.
Since the beginning of last year, Israel has hit more than 500 targets belonging to Iranian-backed militia groups, the Fox News report said.
Israel rarely comments on its activities in Syria, but Gantz said Iranian-backed militias in the country help transfer weapons to Lebanon.
The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi announced in January the army is preparing military plans to hit Iran’s nuclear program this year.
These threats from Israel come as the Biden administration seeks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran to prevent the country from developing a nuclear bomb. Israeli leaders strongly object to the agreement and vow never to allow Iran to produce a nuclear weapon.
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