IDF, coalition leaders pressure PM Netanyahu to approve stronger response to Hezbollah drone attacks

The Israeli Air Force launched new strikes on Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon on Monday, amid almost constant attacks by explosive drones that hit a civilian home in Metula and a school bus stop in Shomera earlier that day.

The intensifying attacks, most of which have used first-person view (FPV) drones that the Israeli military has struggled to thwart, have so far killed eleven IDF soldiers and threaten to collapse the ostensible ceasefire, as criticism of the one-sided constraints on Israel’s military response options is rising quickly.

"We are going to change the equation—without a doubt," a senior Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post in the evening, after IDF Chief Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly advocated returning to strikes on Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, despite American objections.

In the evening, the IDF issued evacuation warnings for the city of Tyre and surrounding areas ahead of incoming airstrikes but again refrained from striking in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut, where the IDF has not attacked for over two weeks.

Amid a series of attacks throughout the day, including a stretch of five alarm sirens within an hour, an explosive drone hit a civilian home in Metula, and another struck the bus stop of a school in Shomera.

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Northern Command chief Maj.-Gen. Rafi Milo noted that Monday’s attacks “crossed a severe and unacceptable red line,” noting that despite the ceasefire, “on the Lebanese front, the Northern Command is at war.”

Shimon Guetta, head of the Ma'ale Yosef Regional Council in the western part of the border, later stated that he decided to cancel school, kindergarten and daycare classes for Tuesday, despite the IDF Home Front Command not issuing instructions to do so.

Over the preceding days, Hezbollah attacks had trapped hundreds of children in their educational institutions for several hours before they could leave for home.

Against this background, Zamir, as well as several coalition leaders, has reportedly demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allow the military to respond with more force. The Trump administration has reportedly pressured Israel not to endanger the ceasefire in Lebanon so as not to anger the Iranian regime and endanger the ceasefire there.

Zamir joined a cabinet meeting on Sunday directly after visiting the IDF Northern Command, where he was present at the 401st Brigade headquarters when Sgt. Nehoray Leizer was killed by an explosive drone.

According to Ynet News, he told the political leadership that “you cannot work with tweezers. A different equation has to be created, one that also includes strikes on buildings in Beirut and Tyre in order to deter.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly clashed with Netanyahu over the same issue, with the prime minister pushing the IDF to find operational solutions to the FPV drone conundrum, while Smotrich demanded to escalate the response until Hezbollah stopped.

“We cannot defend ourselves to death. We need to bring down 10 buildings in Dahiyeh in response to every drone,” Ynet News cited him as saying.

“What are you suggesting? That every time there is a drone, we bring down 10 buildings?” Netanyahu reportedly retorted. “And when there is a drone in Gaza, we bring down 10 buildings in Gaza? And when there is a drone from Judea and Samaria, we bring down 10 buildings in Judea and Samaria?”

Smotrich reportedly replied: “Unequivocally, yes. Wars are won through deterrence and exacting a price. Defending ourselves to death is October 6,” asking whether Netanyahu intended to stretch defensive nets “across Israel’s skies.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Israel "mustn't 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."

Blue and White chairman and former IDF chief, Benny Gantz, somewhat surprisingly, agreed with the far-right leaders.

During a party meeting on Monday, he said, “If explosive drones continue to crash in Israel, no plane should take off in Beirut,” according to Ynet.