Ben-Gvir calls for Lebanon to 'burn' as international isolation deepens

Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, doubled down on an explicitly maximalist approach to the conflict in Lebanon on 19 June 2026, posting on X that "all of Lebanon must burn" following the announcement of four Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon.

In a video statement, Ben-Gvir said he would rather not sound good than see Israeli soldiers and civilians lose their lives.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in combat when their tank was struck during an operation near Kfar Tebnit. One of the dead was identified as Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, the commander of the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Armoured Brigade.

In his post, Ben-Gvir wrote: "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!" He added that he had conveyed the same position to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in private meetings.

"Enough with the ping-pong," he wrote. "In the Middle East, you don't win with measured responses and restraint — you need to go berserk. To obliterate."

Ben-Gvir used the post to explicitly reject the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed between the United States and Iran on 18 June, which requires a suspension of all military activity, including in Lebanon.

"With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit," he wrote.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed the sentiment, calling for Israel to "open the gates of hell" on Lebanon in a social media post the same day — repeating language he had used regarding Gaza in March 2025.

The X platform flagged Ben-Gvir's post as a violation of its rules but determined it may be in the public interest to leave it accessible, placing a warning label over the content. 

Condemnation from Washington and Tehran

The remarks drew an immediate international response. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Ben-Gvir's post was not the outburst of a fringe figure but a statement from a serving cabinet minister. "The genocidal death cult headquartered in Tel Aviv is a threat to all of humanity," Araghchi wrote on X. "It threatens all humans. Its only interest is permanent war."

US Senator Bernie Sanders, a senior senator from Vermont, issued a statement on 23 June calling the remarks those of a war criminal. He called on Washington to withdraw all financial support from what he described as a racist and extremist Israeli government.

The Lebanon post came just one day after Ben-Gvir was publicly named and rebuked by US Vice-President J.D. Vance. In an interview with the New York Times published on 18 June, Vance marked the first time a senior Trump administration official had criticised the Israeli ministers by name, addressing Ben-Gvir and Smotrich directly.

"What is your exact proposal?" Vance said. "You're a country of 9 million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have." He also dismissed Israeli anxieties over the MoU, saying that they stemmed from a place of mistrust and that America had earned the trust of the region. 

Ben-Gvir responded on X in English, addressing Vance directly: "This is the proposal — to deal with the Nazis of the 21st century, just as the United States dealt with the Nazis of the 20th century."

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid summarised the diplomatic damage in a post on X: "In the past day, the US Vice President got angry at a press conference over Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, Foreign Minister Sa'ar cut ties with the European Union's foreign minister, and President Trump said Netanyahu is showing irresponsibility in Lebanon." 

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper issued a public condemnation on 20 June, describing the remarks as "a horrendous and abhorrent statement from an Israeli minister who has rightly been sanctioned by the UK government." She called on both Israel and Hezbollah to respect the ceasefire and avoid further escalation.

A pattern of international sanctions

The Lebanon remarks are the latest in a series of controversies that have seen Ben-Gvir progressively banned from an expanding number of countries.

The most recent flashpoint was the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international convoy that set sail from Turkey in May 2026 in an attempt to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. Israeli naval commandos intercepted the vessel in international waters, detaining more than 430 activists and bringing them to Ashdod port.

Ben-Gvir subsequently posted a video of himself at the port, waving an Israeli flag over kneeling detainees whose hands were bound, and chanting at them in Hebrew. Other footage showed detainees being pushed to the ground and held with their foreheads pressed to the floor while armed guards surrounded them and the Israeli national anthem played.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced the ban on X: "As of today, Itamar Ben-Gvir is banned from entering French territory. This decision follows his unspeakable actions toward French and European citizens who were passengers on the Global Sumud Flotilla." Barrot said France could not tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated, or brutalised by a public official.

France has also opened a judicial investigation into alleged war crimes and torture relating to the treatment of French flotilla activists, opened at the government's request by the national counterterrorism prosecutor's office.

Ireland followed, with Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan instructing immigration officers to refuse entry to both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. Taoiseach Micheál Martin, speaking at the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Montenegro, said the ministers' words and actions amounted to a desire to eliminate Palestinians from Palestine, and called for sanctions at the European Union level.

The bans reflect a trajectory of escalating international isolation. Times of Israel reported, in June 2025 the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Ben-Gvir alongside Smotrich, citing their incitement of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Slovenia and the Netherlands followed in July 2025, and Spain imposed sanctions in September 2025. Turkey's Chief Public Prosecutor's Office charged Ben-Gvir and 36 other Israeli officials with genocide and crimes against humanity in November 2025, issuing an arrest warrant.

Other countries that have since imposed entry bans include Britain, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia.

Ben-Gvir has rejected the bans. In response to Ireland's announcement, he wrote on X: "If this antisemite is calling for sanctions against me, I probably did something right."

Ben-Gvir has served as National Security Minister since 2022. He is the leader of Otzma Yehudit, a far-right Kahanist party that won six seats in the 2022 legislative election and forms part of Israel's thirty-seventh government.

Since Israel's offensive against Hezbollah began on 2 March 2026, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced and more than 1,200 killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.