The comments by Avraham Dichter came as he toured a border community that is the target of continued rocket attacks by militants in the Gaza Strip.

Dichter said Israeli needs to focus on dealing with the overall issues with Hamas and not address the problems in piecemeal fashion, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.

"It's not enough to deal with the rocket fire -- we must also deal with the independence of Hamas, which is smuggling in weapons such as anti-tank missiles similar to those Hezbollah used against us in Lebanon," Dichter said.

Dichter also criticized Egypt for failing to effectively police its border with the Gaza Strip, saying that nation could halt arms smuggling in "an hour" if it took concrete action, the Post said.