Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “bang on” US President Donald Trump’s table and return Israel to “a massive war” in Lebanon, following a fresh wave of Hezbollah drone strikes that have claimed Israeli lives.
In a social media post issued on May 25, Ben Gvir said: “The reality of explosive drones cannot be normalised. It is time for the Prime Minister to bang on Trump’s table and inform him that we are returning to war in Lebanon.”
The minister also called for the Israeli army to “cut electricity in Lebanon, occupy up to the Zahrani [river] and return to a massive war”. The Zahrani lies north of the Litani, the river south of which Hezbollah has long been required to remain under previous UN resolutions.
His remarks have come hours after an Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon by a Hezbollah fibre-optic drone, the latest in a string of fatal incidents involving so-called first-person view (FPV) munitions, which the Israeli army has so far been unable to neutralise effectively.
Echoing Ben Gvir’s tone, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has demanded an end to “the threat of Hezbollah’s explosive drones”. Smotrich confirmed that his ministry had approved a special defence budget of around 2 billion shekels (around €640 million) for new technological solutions, though he insisted defensive measures alone would not suffice.
“For every explosive drone, 10 buildings in Beirut must fall,” Smotrich said, adding that “a strategic threat is not answered with defence alone, but by changing the rules and the equation. Only by inflicting a deterrent and disproportionate price on the enemy will the equation be redrawn against enemies on all fronts.”
The hardening rhetoric has been at odds with Netanyahu’s reported stance at the security cabinet meeting held on May 24, where, according to Israeli media reports, the Prime Minister pressed the army for better defensive solutions rather than calling for a broader offensive. The five-hour session also covered the emerging US-Iran agreement.
The latest statements have come days before a new round of US-mediated contacts between Israel and Lebanon, against a backdrop of continued Israeli strikes and Hezbollah drone and missile attacks. Netanyahu has called for direct talks focused on Hezbollah’s disarmament and the establishment of “peaceful relations”.
In parallel, Washington and Tehran continue to negotiate the terms of the truce that ended the war launched on February 28, when joint US-Israeli operations — codenamed Roaring Lion and Epic Fury — struck Iranian nuclear, missile and command sites. Iranian officials have insisted that any final agreement must include a ceasefire “on all fronts”, Lebanon included, a demand Israel has rejected.
