IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi commented Tuesday on foreign media reports suggesting that earlier this month Israel mounted a cyberattack on Iran's Shahid Rajaee port, presumably in retaliation for a failed Iranian cyberattack on rural water distribution systems in Israel, saying that Isreal "uses a wide range of tools" to defend itself.
"The IDF has a moral obligation to protect the Israeli public from the terrorist armies surrounding us. When the Israeli home front is threatened by thousands of missiles and rockets, we will not hesitate to forcibly attack [the enemy] to neutralize these threats," he said.
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"While we do everything we can to prevent civilian casualties, the enemy makes every effort to harm civilians," Kochavi said, speaking at the induction ceremony of Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin as GOC Homefront Command.
Gordin replaced Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, who was named GOC Central Command.
The IDF "will continue to use a variety of unique military tools and combat methods" to strike its enemies, the chief of staff said.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied whether it had anything to do with the crippling cyber strike on the port facility in the Iranian coastal city of Bandar Abbas.
