Abduct Lebanese Women, Arrest Children: Israeli Minister's 'Out-of-the-Box' Plan to Defeat Hezbollah

If there was ever a minister who made atrocity sound like policy, it is Itamar Ben Gvir . Israel's far-right National Security Minister has once again stunned the world, this time by proposing at a security cabinet meeting that the Israeli military abduct Lebanese women and youth and lock them in Israeli prisons as leverage against Hezbollah.

"Let's start thinking outside the box about Hezbollah," Ben Gvir declared, calling for conquering territory and killing fighters, but also "detaining their women and youth and taking them to terrorist prisons." His reasoning was chillingly transactional: "This is what hurts them most." The cabinet meeting also saw fellow ministers demand the bombing of Beirut , as Israel continues its military campaign despite a US-brokered ceasefire announced in April.

Women are not incidental to this strategy. They are deliberately targeted as the most vulnerable pressure point , the ones whose abduction is calculated to break community will faster than battlefield losses. It is collective punishment repackaged as military genius.

This proposal is entirely consistent with Ben Gvir's record of escalating brutality. In March 2026, he championed the death penalty for terrorists bill, passed 62 to 48 in the Knesset, which critics noted effectively targets West Bank Palestinians exclusively. He then posted a TikTok video declaring he "dreams" of nooses, using AI-generated gallows imagery to celebrate the legislation. A human rights group dubbed him the "hangman of the century" , warning that thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention could now face execution.

He has boasted publicly of worsening conditions for Palestinian detainees, many held without charge, while defending the rape and forced starvation of others. In 2024 he called for shooting women or children approaching the Israeli border, and reportedly urged at a cabinet meeting that children near Gaza's "yellow line" be shot in the head.

Israel has already detained numerous Lebanese civilians since the 2024 war. They are among 1,316 individuals currently held under the "unlawful combatant" law, covering Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese alike. At least 34 Israelis , mostly soldiers, have been killed since March, with 18 deaths recorded since the April ceasefire took effect.

A minister who controls prisons, champions executions, and now wants women kidnapped as human bargaining chips is not thinking outside the box. He is dismantling it entirely.