Israel and Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border fire since the Israeli war on Gaza began.

“We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north,” Gantz said, speaking in Washington at a Middle East forum where he also said Iran and its proxies are “the real issue.”

“The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this,” the National Unity party leader and former army chief said.

Gantz added that Israel made a mistake in evacuating much of the north of the country as hostilities with Hezbollah flared following the start of the war on Gaza.

“We can conduct anything we want in Gaza. We should seek to have a deal to get out our captives but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.”

“We are capable of … hitting the state of Lebanon if needed,” he said.

His remarks came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed the Israeli army to prepare to change the situation in the north while describing Hezbollah in Lebanon as Iran’s “strongest” arm.

Moreover, an Israeli army official told Maariv that the Northern Command is waiting for the political green light to execute an operation in Lebanon.

According to Maariv, the army is continuing to update its attack plans.

Meanwhile, a building was hit in the Israeli settlement of Nahariya on Monday morning, following a drone attack from Lebanon.

Moreover, alarms were activated in the surrounding settlements, according to Israeli media.

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it had bombarded the northern Israeli town of "Kiryat Shmona with a volley of Falaq rockets in response to the enemy attacks ... and particularly the attack" that killed the emergency workers in the Lebanese village of Froun.

The Israeli attack on Froun had targeted "a Lebanese civil defence team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes," according to Lebanon's Ministry of Health.

The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Tel Aviv announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.