UK criticizes Israeli minister over dire Lebanon remarks | Articles of Controversy

The UK foreign secretary has criticized the Israeli minister’s comments amid regional tensions and the end of the ceasefire.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has criticized right-wing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s tweet that “all of Lebanon must be burned” after four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack.

Writing on X on Friday, Cooper said the comments were “horrendous and disgusting”.

He was responding to the message of Ben-Gvir who wrote on X: “For every tear of the women of Israel, a thousand women of Lebanon must cry. The whole of Lebanon must burn!”

He also said that Israel “must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters occupied” and rejected the peace agreement between the US and Iran, saying that “Israel is not under the control of the United States.” He called for Lebanon to be “destroyed”.

In response, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Ben-Gvir’s actions were “not random” but “a public responsibility of Israel’s defense minister”.

Araghchi wrote on X. “The genocidal religious group with its headquarters in Tel Aviv is a danger to all people.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that people who have fled their homes in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to return home.

“The 200,000 people living in the security zone will not return,” he said. None of them will return.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for “opening the gates of hell” in Lebanon, repeating the language he used in March 2025 regarding Gaza.

Since the start of Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah on March 2, 2026, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced and more than 1,200 have been killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanese officials.