Retired Israeli Major General Itzhak Brick has written a scathing indictment of the Israeli military in an op-ed published in the Maariv newspaper on Thursday and warned that an attack on Hezbollah could bring “terrible destruction to Israel, Al Jazeera reports.

Brick said that while there is “tremendous pressure” from community leaders in northern Israel to attack Hezbollah, they are ignorant of the fact that the Israeli military is in a “dire situation”.

An Israeli military attack “against Hezbollah in full force could bring terrible destruction to the whole of Israel”, he wrote, adding that defence minister Yoav Gallant and military chief of staff Herzi Halevi are “not prepared to acknowledge the army’s weakness and impotence”.

Israel needs two years to “rebuild the army” before it’s in a position to attack Hezbollah, Brick added. He further warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevy “have nothing left to lose, and are ready to gamble on the fate of the country”.