Israeli right-wing ministers urge Netanyahu to resume Beirut strikes to counter Hezbollah drone attacks
By Steven Scheer and Maya Gebeily
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, May 25 (Reuters) – Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to continue bombing Beirut in response to Hezbollah’s increasing explosive drone attacks on Israeli troops and northern Israeli towns.
Smotrich’s comments came after an Israeli soldier was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike on Sunday. Israeli media reported that Smotrich made similar statements at the cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“Explosive UAVs harming our fighters are not a decision of fate,” he said in the statement. “For every explosive drone, 10 buildings in Beirut need to be destroyed.”
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu rejected Smotrich’s demands and preferred defensive measures. Netanyahu’s spokesman declined to comment.
Smotrich, the leader of a small far-right party in Netanyahu’s cabinet, has frequently made comments that go beyond official Israeli policy, including that Israel should annex southern Lebanon and Gaza.
Another ultranationalist minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said Israel should not normalize the reality of explosive drones. “It’s time for the Prime Minister to bang on (President Donald) Trump’s desk and tell him we’re back to war in Lebanon,” Ben Gvir said.
UAVS USED IN ATTACKS
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has used cheap, easy-to-assemble First Person View kamikaze drones to transform the war it has been waging since it began firing on Israel on March 2, days after US-Israeli forces began their attacks on Iran.
FPV drones controlled via fiber optic cables can evade Israeli high-tech jamming technologies and target Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon during a shaky ceasefire declared on April 16, a week after the start of a truce in the Iran war.
Apart from an attack targeting a Hezbollah commander in the southern suburbs of Beirut earlier this month, there have been no attacks on the capital or its surroundings since the US declared a ceasefire on April 16. However, Israel exchanged fire with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has called for a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday evening to mark the 26th anniversary of Liberation Day, when Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.
On Sunday evening, Hezbollah leader Naim Qasim stepped up his rhetoric against the Lebanese state, saying people had the right to take to the streets and overthrow the Lebanese government, but refrained from making a direct appeal to Hezbollah supporters to do so.
Smotrich said he approved a budget of 2 billion shekels ($693 million) for technological solutions to the drone threat.
“The response to a significant threat must be meaningful,” Smotrich said, adding that Israel must change the rules and the equation.
Polls show that Smotrich’s party is having difficulty passing the threshold to enter parliament in this year’s elections.
Israeli media reported that during the cabinet meeting, Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir also said that buildings in Beirut should be hit in response to drone attacks. A military spokesman declined to confirm his comments.
($1 = 2.8881 shekels)
(Reporting by Steven Scheer in Jerusalem, Maya Gebeily in Beirut. Editing by Keith Weir)
