By SCM Staff Writer
JERUSALEM — In an escalation of wartime rhetoric that has further strained the internal dynamics of Israel’s ruling coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on the government to arrest and imprison Lebanese women and children as a mechanism to deter Hezbollah.
The remarks, made during a closed-door meeting of Israel’s high-level political-security cabinet and first reported by the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv, drew immediate attention to the broadening fissures within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government regarding the rules of engagement and the strategic scope of the military campaign in Lebanon.
According to leaks confirmed by multiple local outlets, Mr. Ben-Gvir, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, urged fellow ministers to abandon standard military paradigms.
“We must think outside the box regarding Hezbollah,” Mr. Ben-Gvir reportedly stated. “Occupying land and killing large numbers is important, but arresting their women and children and taking them to prison is what hurts them the most.”
The proposal to target the civilian environment of combatants explicitly as a means of collective deterrence underscores the highly volatile political atmosphere dominating Jerusalem.
While Israeli military planners have traditionally focused on precision airstrikes, targeted assassinations, and localized ground maneuvers against Hezbollah infrastructure, far-right factions within the cabinet are increasingly advocating for total warfare, demographic engineering, and permanent territorial conquest.
A Fractured Cabinet and Rising Demands
The cabinet meeting, intended to address defense procurement budgets and the potential expansion of operations along the northern border, quickly devolved into a broader ideological debate.
While Mr. Ben-Gvir lobbied for mass detentions, other right-wing ministers pressed for a radical expansion of conventional military force.
Yitzhak Wasserlauf, the Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee, and a member of Mr. Ben-Gvir’s party, fiercely challenged Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over a pending defense budget crisis.
Mr. Wasserlauf demanded a “disproportionate response” in Lebanon, declaring that the military required vast increases in armament reserves. “Smotrich needs to open his pockets so that he can start to wake up,” he said.
Concurrently, Orit Strock, the Settlement Affairs Minister, openly called for the long-term occupation of Lebanese territory. Defense Minister Israel Katz, while steering clear of Mr. Ben-Gvir’s civilian detention proposals, echoed the demand for aggressive measures, stating that “the fate of the Dahiyeh in Beirut is the fate of the towns of the north,” referencing the heavily bombed southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
The incendiary debate comes at a highly sensitive diplomatic juncture. The internal government friction has intensified just as international actors, including U.S. President Donald Trump, have engaged in backchannel communications with Israeli leadership to enforce an official directive to hold fire and stabilize the volatile northern front.
The leaked comments indicate a profound gap between international diplomatic expectations and the domestic political pressures bearing down on Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Ben-Gvir’s latest comments follow a well-established pattern of provocation that has frequently isolated Israel on the global stage and drawn public rebukes from his own cabinet colleagues.
As National Security Minister, he oversees Israel’s police force and prison system, positions he has leveraged to enforce severe crackdowns on detainees and promote highly controversial legislation, including a recently passed Knesset bill permitting the death penalty for certain security prisoners.
Just last month, Mr. Ben-Gvir drew widespread international condemnation from foreign governments after his office published a video showing him walking through a detention camp, openly taunting and mocking blindfolded, zip-tied humanitarian aid workers captured aboard a maritime flotilla.
The spectacle forced a rare public reprimand from Mr. Netanyahu, who stated the behavior was “not in line” with state values, while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar openly labeled the display “disgraceful” for the reputational damage it inflicted abroad.
Legal analysts note that the mass detention of non-combatant civilians, including women and children, to leverage psychological pressure on an adversary would constitute a severe violation of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly prohibits collective punishment and the taking of hostages.
As the conflict dragging in regional actors like Iran shows few signs of permanent resolution, the explicit nature of the rhetoric inside Israel’s highest governing body suggests that the battle over the strategic direction of the war is becoming as fierce inside Jerusalem’s halls of power as it is on the ground in southern Lebanon.
For a deeper visual understanding of the regional political tensions and the public pushback surrounding the National Security Minister’s actions, you can view this ABC News Australia report detailing the diplomatic fallout over Mr. Ben-Gvir’s controversial handling of foreign detainees, which highlights the growing friction within the Israeli cabinet itself.