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Two senior ministers in the Israeli government called on Monday for a major military escalation in Lebanon following continued drone attacks attributed to Hezbollah.
During a meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to coordinate with US President Donald Trump and announce what he described as a “return to war in Lebanon.”
According to reports, Ben-Gvir called for cutting electricity supplies to Lebanon, taking control of the Zahrani area, and resuming intensive military operations.
READ: Netanyahu threatens to expand offensive in Lebanon as Washington signals support
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further by explicitly calling for strikes on Beirut in response to Hezbollah drone operations targeting Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and along the border.
In a post on Telegram, Smotrich wrote: “For every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut should be brought down.”
He also announced the allocation of approximately two billion Israeli shekels — around $692 million — to develop systems designed to counter Hezbollah drones.
The statements came after the Israeli military announced the death of another Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon.
According to official Israeli figures cited in the reports, 24 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the current offensive in Lebanon last March.
BLOG: Resolutions are disconnected from the Palestinian reality
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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