Chief of Israel's armed forces has told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that the Hezbollah militants in Lebanon now posses thousands of missiles capable of striking the Jewish country's major cities, according to officials and local reports.
Israeli media quoted Major General Gabi Ashkenazi as telling the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that the Hezbollah militants now have rockets that can strike targets 325 kilometers away.
Ashkenazi's statements imply that major Israeli cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as Israel's nuclear reactor in the southern desert, are within the range of Hezbollah's rockets.
Israel has been concerned about Hezbollah's military capability ever since it fought a 34-day war with the Lebanese militant group in 2006. That war left more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis dead. Most of the Israelis killed in that war were soldiers.
Ashkenazi also told lawmakers on Tuesday that the army's investigations into the December-January Gaza war concluded that the Israeli soldiers did not deliberately attack civilians during the three-week long offensive.
He was apparently responding to a report submitted by a UN-investigation team last month. The team headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone concluded in their 575-page report that actions amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the Israeli security forces and Hamas militants during the Gaza offensive.
The report, which also listed a series of recommendations, including the handing over of the case to an international tribunal if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct proper investigations into the alleged war crimes within six months, has since been endorsed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.
On the issue of Tehran's disputed nuclear program, Ashkenazi said that Iran was not an irrational country, adding that international pressure could persuade Tehran to abandon its disputed controversial nuclear program.
"Iran is very radical on one hand, but on the other hand you can't say that it is an irrational country," Ashkenazi said. "Alterations in policy towards Iran by the international community as well as efficient pressure could bring change within Iran."
Though Iran says its nuclear program is intended for peaceful civilian power generation purposes only, the West suspect it a cover up for the Islamic country's nuclear weapon ambitions. Iran has already survived three sets of sanctions imposed on it by the UN Security Council following its refusal to halt nuclear development work.
Ashkenazi's remarks on Tuesday came as the international community was making serious efforts to persuade Tehran to accept a nuclear deal proposed by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei for ending the standoff between Tehran and the west over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.