Former head of Southern Command General Tzvika Fogel slammed Israeli politicians during a Friday interview with 103 FM radio, calling them “cowardly,” according to Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post.

“How long can we roll this lie forward?” he asked. “Deterrence is achieved when the other side doesn’t [dare] to even raise their head, not when it attacks us again every few weeks.”

Fogel, who resides in Beersheba, said that it had been more than a decade since IDF forces evacuated Gush Katif in 2005, and “we’ve been through three [military] operations and dozens of clashes.”

“This is not how we wanted to live,” he said. “They [Israeli politicians] eliminated one commander and tomorrow morning someone will replace him; don’t take this baloney.”

Fogel was speaking about Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Bahaa Abu al-Ata , who was eliminated by the IDF on Tuesday morning, leading PIJ to fire hundreds of rockets at Israel.

He warned that the claims that Hamas is “showing restraint” are lies, and that Hamas is “smart and has studied us.”

“Every day we need to kill 50 terrorists like al-Ata; we have to kill every day until they raise a white flag [of surrender]," he said. "Our Politicians are cowards and can’t make a decision."

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“They must give [the IDF] the order to win, not let a minor [terror] group grab the country like that,” he added.

On Saturday, Blue and White leader and former chief of staff Benny Gantz called to “bring back deterrence” with “lots of force” after Hamas fired rockets at Israel on the previous night.

Party co-leader Yair Lapid called for extending what he called “financial cranes” to Gaza and to “lift the civilians [there] from the circle of poverty and distress; the change will begin in Jerusalem,” he wrote on social media.