Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday (May 25, 2026) called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‌to resume bombing Beirut in response to increased explosive drone attacks by ​Hezbollah on Israeli troops and northern Israel towns. Mr. Smotrich’s comments came after an ⁠Israeli soldier was killed by a Hezbollah drone attack on Sunday (May 24, 2026). Israeli media reported that Mr. Smotrich made similar remarks at a cabinet meeting on Sunday (May 24, 2026).

“The explosive drones harming our fighters are not ‌a decree of fate,” he said in a statement. “For every explosive drone, 10 buildings should fall in Beirut.” Israeli media reported that Mr. Netanyahu rejected Mr. Smotrich’s demands and ‌preferred defensive measures. A Netanyahu spokesperson declined to comment.

Mr. Smotrich, leader of a small ‌far-right ⁠party in Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet, has frequently made comments that go beyond official Israeli ⁠policy, including that Israel must annex southern Lebanon and Gaza.

Another ultranationalist minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said Israel must not normalise the reality of explosive drones. “It is time for the Prime Minister to bang on (President Donald) Trump’s desk ​and tell him that we ‌are returning to war in Lebanon,” Mr. Ben Gvir said.

Drones used for attacks

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has used cheap, easy-to-assemble First Person View kamikaze drones to transform the war it has been fighting since it began firing on Israel on March 2, ‌days after the U.S.-Israeli forces began their attacks on Iran.

Controlled with fiber-optic cables, ​the FPV drones can evade Israel’s high-tech jamming technologies to target its troops occupying southern Lebanon during a shaky ceasefire announced on April 16, a ⁠week after the truce in the wider Iran war began. Except for a strike targeting a Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier this month, there have been no strikes on ‌the capital or its surroundings since the U.S. announced a ceasefire on April 16. However, Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah called for a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday (May 25, 2026) evening to mark the 26th anniversary of Liberation Day, when Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.

On Sunday (May 24, 2026) evening, Hezbollah head Naim Qassem ramped up his rhetoric against the Lebanese state, saying that people had a right ‌to take to the streets and overthrow the Lebanese government, although he stopped short of making a ​direct call for Hezbollah’s supporters to do so. Mr. Smotrich said he had approved a 2 billion shekel ($693 million) budget for technological solutions to address the ⁠drone threat.

“The response to a significant threat must be significant,” Mr. Smotrich said, adding Israel needs to ⁠change the rules and the equation.

Polls show Mr. Smotrich’s party struggling to pass the threshold to get into parliament in an election later this year.

Israeli media ‌reported that during the cabinet meeting, military chief of staff Eyal Zamir also said that buildings in Beirut should be struck in response to the drone attacks. ​A military spokesperson declined to confirm his comments.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, said on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) he ​was informed that the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court ‌in the Hague has requested a “secret” arrest ​warrant against him.

Mr. Smotrich, speaking at a ⁠press conference, did not specify who had informed him of the warrant on Monday (May 18, 2026) evening, and the process of ‌seeking warrants is confidential. He also did not reveal the ICC’s reasons.

The office of ‌the prosecutor at the ICC declined to ‌comment, citing ⁠confidentiality of the process.

Prosecutors can submit ⁠a confidential application to judges, who have to find there are reasonable grounds to conclude a suspect has committed crimes ​under the jurisdiction of ‌the ICC in order to approve the application.

Mr. Smotrich said he had been told that the court “submitted a secret request for an international arrest warrant ‌against me.”

The court in November 2024 ​had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, ⁠Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes ‌against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

Mr. Smotrich called the arrest warrants against Israeli officials “a declaration of war” by the Palestinian Authority, apparently reflecting Israeli government anger at what it sees as Palestinian backing for international legal action over the Gaza war.

Britain and four ‌other nations last year imposed sanctions on Mr. Smotrich and another ​far-right Israeli Cabinet Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in ⁠the West Bank.

Mr. Smotrich has called for the permanent ⁠conquest of Gaza and re-establishment of Jewish settlements there that Israel abandoned in 2005, notions ‌that Mr. Netanyahu has rejected.