• Ministers want more territory be occupied, women and children detained, accuse Hezbollah of attempting to drag Tel Aviv into war
• Christian quarter in Tyre emptied out as Israeli strikes kill eight more

JERUSALEM: Israeli ministers have escalated their rhetoric against Lebanon, calling for the bombing of Beirut, the detention of Lebanese women and the occupation of territory in retaliation for Hezbollah drone strikes.

“We must think outside the box regarding Hezbollah, and we should also consider occupying territory and killing many terrorists,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said during a meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet on Monday evening, the Anadolu Agency reported, citing the Maariv newspaper.

Ben-Gvir also called for “arresting their women and children”, saying, “This is what hurts them most.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Hezbollah of seeking to drag Israel into “a war of attrition”.

The Israeli military has carried out deadly airstrikes on Lebanon since a Hezbollah cross-border attack on March 2, killing more than 3,600 people, injuring over 11,100 and displacing more than one million others.

The ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon triggered a day of tit-for-tat exchanges between Iran and Israel on Monday.

While Tehran vowed a “crushing” response if Israeli attacks on Lebanon continued, Tel Aviv said it would press ahead with its offensive.

“Israel needs a lot of weapons,” Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, told the meeting.

Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock also called for the occupation of territory in Lebanon.

Calls to bomb Beirut

Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar called for intensified airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“I believe the Iranians understand that entering a direct confrontation with Israel is not wise,” Zohar told Israel’s local 103 FM radio.

“The next time Hezbollah fires on Israeli towns, we will immediately attack the Dahiyeh. The Iranians will try again, so let them try,” he said.

“(Prime Minister Benjamin) Netan­yahu has made it clear that if Iran tries to harm us, we will destroy it completely,” Zohar added.

“We continue to shape the Middle East as it should be,” he said.

During the Cabinet meeting, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said, “The fate of the Dahiyeh in Beirut is the fate of the towns in the north.”

“We categorically reject the Iranian threats, and any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon to Iran or attack Israel will be met with great force, as happened yesterday,” Katz said.

Deadly strikes

Meanwhile, the Christian quarter in southern Lebanon’s Tyre — the last part of the coastal city previously spared from Israeli threats — was largely emptied on Tuesday as Israel issued its first-ever evacuation order for the entire city and launched strikes that killed at least eight people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

“We’ve packed our things, and we’re leaving,” resident Elias Barbour told AFP.

The deaths followed a single strike on the city’s eastern edge, the ministry and state media said.

A video of the aftermath, in a location verified by Reuters as being in the neighbourhood of the strike, showed debris strewn across the length of a road. In a smoke-filled alleyway, a crane could be seen operating near a damaged building.

The health ministry said rescuers were still searching through the rubble of the strike for survivors.

Evacuation warning

The Israeli military had issued an online evacuation warning for the entire city, where people displaced from elsewhere in the city were seeking shelter and which had been left out of previous evacuation orders.

Last week, the Israeli military said people from Iran-backed Hezbollah were hiding out in the area, without providing evidence.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2026