Defense Minister says Israel is updating its plans to strike Iranian nuclear sites and Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned Thursday that Israel’s military is updating plans to strike Iranian nuclear sites and is prepared to act independently.

In an interview with Fox News from his office in Jerusalem, Gantz said Israel has identified numerous targets inside Iran that would hurt its ability to develop a nuclear bomb.

“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.

Gantz also warned that Israel is paying close attention to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, which is financed and armed by Tehran, after intelligence assessments determined that Iran may choose to attack Israel during 2021 using its proxy militias in Lebanon and Syria.

The defense minister showed Fox a classified map of targets in Lebanon showing how many of Hezbollah’s estimated arsenal of almost 200,000 rockets and missiles are placed in the middle of civilians in Lebanon. Hezbollah is known to use the Lebanese population as both as a shield for its weaponry and as an excuse if there are casualties from any Israeli military retaliation against the rockets.

“This is a target map. Each one of them has been checked legally, operationally, intelligence-wise and we are ready to fight,” Gantz said.

In a surprise simulation last month, the Israel Air Force carried out a three-day military exercise simulating a war with Hezbollah in which the Israeli military hit 3,000 simulated Hezbollah targets a day.

Over the past several years Israel has been repeatedly intercepting shipments of advanced weaponry from Iran to Hezbollah by attacking the shipments as they pass through Syria. Since the start of 2020, Israel hit more than 500 Iranian-linked sites in Syria with airstrikes, the Fox report noted.

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gantz have warned U.S. President Biden against returned to the Iran Nuclear Deal without changing it to eliminate Iran’s repeated threats to annihilate Israel, including restrictions on Tehran’s ballistic missile program that is widely believed to be the delivery system for nuclear weapons and reigning in Iran’s military aggression in the region through the proxy terror groups it supports.

Speaking to Vice-President Kamala Harris by phone Thursday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s determination to stop the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Gantz said the Americans had their own interests to look after, but so does Israel.

“The American policy should be American policy, and Israeli policy should stay Israeli policy,” he said.

Source: https://worldisraelnews.com/gantz-idf-updating-preparations-to-strike-iran-ready-to-fight/

The post IDF updating preparations to strike Iran, ‘ready to fight by ourselves’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Sunday is the anniversary of the American assassination of IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani, and Israel could be targeted as a close U.S. ally.

Israel’s defense forces are bracing for an attack by Iran or its terror proxies as the Islamic Republic marks the first anniversary of the assassination of one of its most important generals on Sunday.

On January 3, 2020, an American drone fired a missile at a car driving away from Baghdad International Airport and killed the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, along with other terrorists.

Soleimani coordinated Iran’s extraterritorial military operations that included working closely with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Yemen.

The IDF has taken into account many scenarios, including an attack by any one or a combination of these proxies. These could be a drone or missile strike from afar, such as by Yemen’s Houthi rebels’, who have carried out several similar long-distance missions against Saudi Arabia, the latest targeting Riyadh last June. Another possibility is an order from Iran to its Gaza or Lebanese clients to launch a rocket attack or infiltration attempt over Israel’s northern or western borders.

Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi already started warning Iran against targeting the Jewish state or Israeli objectives abroad two weeks ago.

“The IDF will forcefully attack anyone who is involved, in part or in full, from near or far, in action against the State of Israel or against Israeli targets,” he said.

“I am simplifying things and describing the situation to our enemies as it is,” he added. “Our retaliation plans are prepared, and they already have been practiced.”

Although the IDF Spokesman’s Unit would not confirm the report, Kan News also reported that an Israeli submarine passed openly through the Suez Canal in December, moving toward the Persian Gulf in another message to Tehran.

Iranian leaders have vowed vengeance ever since Soleimani’s assassination, and Israel has always known that as the closest U.S. ally in the region it could absorb a blow meant to send a message to Washington. Tehran has also threatened Jerusalem over the targeted killing last November in Iran of its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was believed to head the Islamic Republic’s efforts to construct nuclear weapons.

Israel has never taken responsibility for the assassination.

Source: https://worldisraelnews.com/israel-on-high-alert-for-iran-sponsored-attack-on-anniversary-of-soleimanis-death/

The post Israel on high alert for Iran-sponsored attack on anniversary of Soleimani’s death first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.