In an interview with Israel’s Channel 7 TV, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reported that his son has asked him not to finish destroying Lebanon before he has the opportunity to get involved and do some destroying of his own.
The hawkish Smotrich said he told his son not to worry and that there would be plenty of destruction for everyone to get involved in.
The younger Smotrich was initially intended to be deployed into Lebanon when the invasion began in March, but his unit was targeted along the border by anti-tank fire and he sustained what were at the time described as “light injuries” just days into the conflict.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gestures, on the day of a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
In the interview, Smotrich said his son is recovering quickly from those injuries, and is seemly eager to participate in some of the attacks in Lebanon. There is currently a state of ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, though Israeli forces continue to carry out daily attacks on southern Lebanon.
Smotrich has repeatedly advocated annexing the whole of southern Lebanon, declaring that everything south of the Litani River should be part of Israel. In recent comments he has suggested that Israel’s assorted wars need to ultimately end with annexations of Gaza, the entire West Bank, and substantial parts of both Syria and Lebanon.
He had brought attention to his son’s potential involvement in the war in the early stages of the conflict, touring the Israel-Lebanon border and meeting with troops, including his son, while promising to see destruction of Lebanon on a level of that seen in the Gaza Strip.
