Benny Gantz
Benny GantzAvshalom Sassoni/Flash 90

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Thursday that the spate of recent terrorist attacks in Israel poses a difficult challenge, but he is satisfied with the functioning of the police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

"There are a lot of daily successes that no one hears about because the IDF soldiers, the Shin Bet and the police are stopping the attacks. Unfortunately, there are also those [terrorists] who manage to infiltrate," Gantz told Channel 12 News in an interview.

"Everyone understands that in principle a person can pull a screwdriver out of his pocket or take out a knife and attack in an unpredictable way. Therefore, we are not content with only intelligence. There is no doubt that some of these attacks were planned, such as Hadera and Bnei Brak. These are two very difficult incidents that someone planned on his own but did not keep in touch with his surroundings. We investigate every incident, learn from every incident and try to get better from every incident," he added.

"I am very satisfied with the functioning of the Shin Bet, very satisfied with the functioning of the Israel Police. I know what kind of challenge they are facing. We have an excellent system, inter-ministerial and inter-organizational cooperation is very important. We are not in a position to make accusations against each other, on the contrary," continued Gantz.

Gantz rejected the criticism from parties in the opposition that a government in which the Ra’am party is a member cannot take the necessary steps to fight terrorism.

"The Israeli government is functioning very well. It exercises force very well, all security decisions are made freely and without restrictions at all. Our coalition partners and Arab leaders in general condemned the attacks, which is a very important thing. I think this is the time to behave in a statesmanlike and responsible manner," he said.