IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. Photo: WikiCommons.

Benny Gantz, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said Wednesday that, “Israel must obtain superpower status in the realm of cyberspace,” Israeli daily Walla reported.

In a speech given in honor of the late IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), Gantz added that while, “Special operations must always be executed, we won’t be expanding on them.”

The IDF’s top soldier’s remarks come just days after it was reveled that hackers broke into an Israeli defense ministry computer via an email attachment tainted with malicious software that looked like it had been sent by the country’s Shin Bet secret security service.

The Chief of Staff went on to say that the Israeli military must continue to strengthen civilian as well as military components of the country’s home front defense.

Gantz also addressed the growing tension and recent escalation of violence in the southern portion of Israel, saying that, “Every night on the Egyptian border, we are seeing concerted efforts to dig tunnels for the sake of smuggling of people and arms.”