Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz attends a cabinet meeting of the new government, at the Chagall Hall in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, May 24, 2020. Photo: Abir Sultan / Pool via Reuters / File.

i24 News – Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz used a memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers of the 2006 Second Lebanon War to warn the country’s enemies that they will face a different foe.

The former IDF chief of staff stressed that Israeli forces would “immediately and powerfully” enter the depths of enemy territory, if need be, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“In the next operations or, God forbid, wars, when we have to reach the depths of the enemy again, these forces, which are based on both regular and reserve [forces], will arrive immediately and powerfully and will be a central part of the fighting,” Gantz said.

“We will activate them if required. Not lightly, but with the knowledge and understanding that the decisive capacity of the army is required, powerful, existing, and ready for the tasks before us,” he added.

The defense minister reiterated that while Israel ultimately sought peace with its neighbors, it was ready, willing, and able to activate its “full capacity” in any arena, including Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been entrenched in the crisis-hit country for decades and has reportedly built up an arsenal of approximately 150,000 missiles, many of them now — with Iranian technological know-how — precision-guided.

Gantz explained that Israeli forces were ever-vigilant and that attempts to sabotage the country’s borders had not gone unnoticed.

Israel faces likely threats from at least three different sources: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to the south in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah to the north in Lebanon, and another Iranian proxy, the Houthis, to the southeast in Yemen.