Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said “all of Lebanon must burn” after the Israeli military reported that four of its soldiers had been killed in the south of the country.
The remarks, posted on X on June 19, cut directly against a memorandum of understanding signed days earlier by the United States and Iran that is meant to end the Iran war and halt fighting across the region.
Brushing aside the new accord, Ben-Gvir said Israel had to make clear to the world that the blood of its soldiers and the safety of its citizens were not expendable. He also invoked grieving Israeli mothers, saying Lebanese mothers should weep a thousandfold in return.
The Israeli military said the four had been killed “in combat” when their tank was hit during an operation near Kfar Tebnit, a village in southern Lebanon. It named one of the dead as Dor Ben Simhon, a 32-year-old lieutenant colonel who commanded the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Armoured Brigade.
Israeli and Lebanese accounts said a drone or anti-tank missile had struck the tank shortly after midnight, with the exact cause still under investigation. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that controls much of southern Lebanon, was blamed for the attack.
The deaths exposed how fragile the agreement remains over Lebanon. Iran has said the deal requires an immediate halt to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanese soil, where Israeli troops still hold swathes of territory.
Israel, which is not a party to the accord, has rejected that reading. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said its forces would remain in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli strikes across the south had killed at least 15 people the same day. Planned US-Iran talks in Switzerland were then called off, with US vice-president JD Vance scrapping a trip there.
France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Israel should stop its operations and that Washington should press it to do so.
Ben-Gvir, who leads the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, has courted controversy before. In May he posted footage of himself berating detained activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, conduct Netanyahu said did not reflect Israel’s values.
