JERUSALEM — He kept quiet for months, his poll numbers creeping up against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Benny Gantz, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces who is offering himself up as a savior to the opposition, is finally making some noise.

In three hypermacho new campaign videos, Mr. Gantz, a three-star general who fought two wars in Gaza, flaunts the numbers of “terrorists killed” and “targets destroyed.”

[Who’s who and what’s what in Israel’s elections.]

Palestinian neighborhoods are shown in ruins. A Hamas military leader is mocked as his car is seen exploding in an assassination by airstrike. The soundtrack wouldn’t be out of place in a “Call of Duty” commercial. Nor would the tagline: “Only the strong prevail.”

The body-count braggadocio horrified leftists, who asked acidly why the 500-plus Palestinian children killed hadn’t rated a mention. And it failed to mollify right-wing rivals who say that Mr. Gantz’s reluctant-warrior hesitancy and command miscalculations had actually cost Israeli soldiers’ lives.