Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday after differences over the conduct of the war in Gaza, and replaced him with current foreign minister Israel Katz.
This surprise announcement comes while awaiting the result of the presidential election in the United States, Israel’s main ally.
“In the midst of war, trust is required more than ever between the prime minister and his defense minister,” but “in recent months, this trust has been eroded,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a letter addressed to Mr. Gallant, as Israel battles on two fronts, against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Mr. Netanyahu added that he had “chosen to appoint Minister Israel Katz” to replace Mr. Gallant, a retired general who became one of the main figures in the government.
He had established himself in Israel as a leading figure in the war that Israel has been waging since September against Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
But Mr. Gallant also pleaded for a truce with Hamas in Gaza with a view to obtaining the release of the hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, while the objective hammered out by Mr. Netanyahu is a annihilation of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Since a single truce in November 2023, all diplomatic efforts towards a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory of Gaza have proven unsuccessful.
Mission of my life »
“The security of Israel has been and will remain my life’s mission,” Gallant responded on X.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been at war against the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza and since September also against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It also responded to missile attacks against its territory carried out by Iran, which supports these two Islamist movements.
Mr. Gallant had reiterated in recent weeks his objective of pushing back Hezbollah fighters from Israel’s northern border, in order to secure the area to allow displaced people to return home.
Around 60,000 people have been internally displaced due to almost daily cross-border firefights since Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023 in support of Hamas, before the situation degenerated into open war .
“Military action” is “the only way to guarantee the return of communities in northern Israel to their homes,” Mr. Gallant said on September 16 to American envoy Amos Hochstein, visiting Israel.
According to Calev Ben-Dor, a former analyst at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Mr. Gallant had established himself as a “responsible” figure, “perceived as focusing on victory and the national interest,” “rather than on low-level politics.”
A profile making him more “unifying” than Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Michaël Horowitz, expert in geopolitics for the security consulting firm Le Beck, based in the Middle East.
Even though he joined the same party, Likud, as the prime minister in 2019, Mr. Gallant entered politics in a center-right party (Kulanou), and the two men have often disagreed.
Mr. Gallant commanded Operation “Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, which killed 1,440 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
