JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, on Tuesday, justifying his decision by their too many differences over the conduct of the wars in which Israel is engaged.
Yoav Gallant is replaced by Israel Katz, whose own place as Minister of Foreign Affairs is given to Gideon Sarr, the Prime Minister's services announced in a press release.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, both members of the conservative Likud party, have publicly disagreed for months over the aims of the war in the Gaza Strip, launched in retaliation for the attack by Palestinian Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The head of government declares in a press release that a “crisis of confidence has gradually opened up” with his Minister of Defense and that “this crisis does not allow the normal continuation of the conduct of the military campaign”.
“In light of this, I decided today to end the mandate of the Minister of Defense,” he added.
Benjamin Netanyahu claims to have sought to bridge these differences of opinion but that they “continued to widen” and became public. “Worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy and our enemies took advantage of them and derived much profit from them,” he said.
The Prime Minister considers that these differences were also accompanied by declarations and initiatives “in contradiction with the decisions of the government and the decisions of the (war) cabinet”.
Yoav Gallant, a career soldier, replied on the X network that “the security of the State of Israel has always been and will always remain the mission of (his) life.”
The public disagreements between Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant reflect a broader divergence of views between the religious-right and nationalist government and the military, which has long favored reaching a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and allow the return of hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023 by Hamas.
While Yoav Gallant judges that the war no longer has a clear objective, Benjamin Netanyahu repeats that the fighting cannot stop before the elimination of Hamas as a political and military entity in Gaza.
Shortly before the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu had already dismissed Yoav Gallant for the first time due to their disagreements over the judicial reform project defended by the Prime Minister and widely contested in the streets during large demonstrations. Faced with this protest, the head of government reversed his decision.
(Written by Steven Scheer, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Nicolas Delame)
