Netanyahu Tells IDF to ‘Step on the Gas’ Against Hezbollah in Lebanon

Whatever happens in the deal to be made — or not made — between Iran and the United States, Israel will not allow itself to be blocked in pursuit of its aim to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon. The recent killings of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon by exploding drones have led Israel’s political echelon to make the decision to give the IDF leeway for even more devastating strikes, including in the middle of Beirut. More on this policy can be found here: “Netanyahu orders IDF to ‘hit the gas’ on Hezbollah strikes amid drone strikes in northern Israel,” by Amichai Stein, Jerusalem Post, May 25, 2026:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he ordered the IDF to “hit the gas,” striking Hezbollah, noting that the military had already killed “more than 600 Hezbollah terrorists in the last few weeks.”

“We will hit them. That’s right, they are shooting drones at us, fiber drones. We have a dedicated team working on that, and we will resolve it as well. In the meantime, you are showing resilience,” Netanyahu said, adding that he wanted to “congratulate the residents of the north for a resilience that inspires all of us.”

“But what this requires of us now is to increase the blows, to increase the force. We will hit them on the shin and thigh,” he concluded.

The prime minister’s comments come hours after multiple sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel should attack Beirut in response to Hezbollah’s drone attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon during a Security Cabinet meeting….

“We must put an end to the threat of Hezbollah’s explosive drones,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a Monday statement. “For every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut should fall.”

“A strategic threat is not answered by defense alone, but by changing the rules and the equation,” he added, pointing out the recent NIS 2 billion defense budget he had approved to address the ongoing drone threat.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed Smotrich’s sentiment in a Monday post to X/Twitter.

“It is forbidden to normalize the reality of explosive drones; it is time for the prime minister to bang on Trump’s table and inform him that we are returning to war in Lebanon,” Ben-Gvir wrote. “We need to cut off electricity in Lebanon, conquer Dahiyeh, and return to an intense war.”

It looks like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir will get their wish. The IDF will no longer bombard only Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, but will attack sites throughout Lebanon, including all of Beirut, and Smotrich’s suggestion that for every IDF soldier killed, ten buildings in Beirut should be leveled is no longer to be ruled out. In a week or two, we’ll know just how ferocious this new IDF assault on Hezbollah will be. Israel knows that in Lebanon, most of the country — all of its Christians and Sunni Muslims, and even many of its Shia Muslims — are in a rage at Hezbollah for the destruction of infrastructure that the terror group’s continuing attacks on Israel have caused. Now there will be more destruction, and even more Lebanese rage directed, as it should be, not at Israel, but at the onlie begetter of all the violence, Hezbollah.