Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir raised the ceiling of threats towards Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go towards a broader escalation on both fronts, and demanding the bombing of Beirut and launching a tougher confrontation with Hezbollah.
Ben Gvir said, in statements on Sunday, that he hopes that Israel is “on the verge of an escalation with Lebanon,” considering that “it is not possible to focus solely on thwarting threats,” calling for an end to what he described as “the game of cat and mouse” and “to crush them also in Beirut.”
In a more escalating stance, Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to completely occupy the Gaza Strip, encourage immigration from it, and destroy the Hamas movement, in parallel with the bombing of Beirut and launching operations aimed, as he put it, at “crushing Hezbollah.”
Ben Gvir’s positions come at a very sensitive time on the Lebanese front, after southern Lebanon witnessed on August 15 the bloodiest Israeli escalation since the beginning of the truce in June, as Israeli raids led to the death of 11 people, including children, in Ansar, Deir Al-Zahrani and other areas, while Israel said that the raids came in response to an attack attributed to Hezbollah that led to the injury of Israeli soldiers.
The field escalation comes amid an ongoing dispute over the future of the Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon, as Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced that the Israeli army will not withdraw before disarming Hezbollah, at a time when Washington is clinging to an agreement linking Israeli withdrawal to the deployment of the Lebanese army and verifying the party’s disarmament in the agreed-upon areas.
Ben Gvir’s current statements are not the first of their kind, as on May 25 he called on Netanyahu to inform US President Donald Trump that Israel will return to war in Lebanon, considering that it is not permissible to accept continued drone attacks from the Lebanese front.
Ben Gvir had also previously opposed the ceasefire with Lebanon, describing it in June as a “serious mistake,” and accused the Lebanese state of being unable to remove Hezbollah from the south of the Litani, as part of his consistent position pushing towards adopting a more stringent military approach towards Lebanon.
On the Gaza front, Ben Gvir’s new position is consistent with his repeated speech calling for the occupation of the entire Gaza Strip and encouraging Palestinians to emigrate from it – demands that he had previously put forward publicly on more than one occasion, in parallel with his rejection of any formula that would allow Hamas to remain or stop military operations before eliminating its capabilities.
His call to bomb Beirut gains additional significance in light of the recent escalation in Lebanon, especially since right-wing Israeli ministers have pushed during the past months for stronger responses to Hezbollah operations, which included calling for expanding strikes to the Lebanese capital and reopening a broad military confrontation.
Thus, Ben Gvir’s statements reflect a trend within the more hard-line wing of the Israeli government to pressure Netanyahu with the aim of moving from a policy of limited strikes and responses to broader operations in Lebanon and Gaza, at a moment when military pressures intersect with American efforts to prevent the collapse of existing understandings and the outbreak of a new round of war.
