Israel: Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Yoav Gallant

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday after differences over the conduct of the war in Gaza, replacing him with Israel Katz who promised to defeat the country’s “enemies”.

This surprise announcement comes while awaiting the result of the presidential election in the United States, the main ally of Israel, a country which is fighting on two fronts, against Palestinian Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“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,” Netanyahu said in a letter to Gallant.

“Significant differences emerged… in the conduct of the (military) campaign, accompanied by statements and actions that contradicted the decisions of the government and cabinet,” he added.

Netanyahu chose the head of diplomacy Israel Katz, nicknamed the “bulldozer”, to replace Yoav Gallant.

Serving on the security cabinet, Mr. Katz “combines the responsibility and calm problem-solving qualities that are essential to leading this campaign,” the prime minister said.

“We will work together to lead the Department of Defense to victory against the enemy and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of the hostages, the destruction of Hamas, the defeat of Hezbollah, the containment of Iranian aggression and the return home in safety of the inhabitants of the north and the south (of Israel),” assured Mr. Katz in X. Gideon Saar, current minister without portfolio, succeeds Mr. Katz.

Concern for the hostages

Gallant had established himself as a leading figure in Israel’s war against Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.

But he attracted the wrath of the ultra-Orthodox parties, key allies of the prime minister’s coalition, by ordering the conscription of 10,000 men from this religious community who had until then benefited from an exemption under a rule established during the creation of Israel in 1948.

In 2018, the issue of their conscription created a crisis, precipitating the country into several legislative elections.

Netanyahu “did well” to dismiss Yoav Gallant, responded the Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, of the far right.

Mr. Gallant also pleaded for a truce with Hamas with a view to obtaining the release of hostages still held in Gaza since the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023 against Israel, while the objective hammered out by Netanyahu is an annihilation of this formation.

The Families Forum, the main association of hostage relatives, said it was “deeply concerned” about his ouster, calling on his successor to “prioritize” an agreement for the release of captives in Gaza.

In the evening, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv to demand an agreement allowing the release of the hostages.

Of 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 2023, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.

“A question of time”

“The security of Israel has been and will remain my life’s mission,” Gallant responded in X.

Israel must ensure the return of the hostages “as long as they are alive,” he then declared.

According to political analyst Aviv Bushinsky, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, Gallant’s dismissal was only a “matter of time.” “Perhaps Netanyahu fears a victory for the Democrats” in the United States, which would have made such a dismissal “more complicated.”

Netanyahu feels “comforted by the improvement in his rating in the polls”, and “also benefits from the fact that the world’s attention is elsewhere” with the American election, judges Jonathan Rynhold, director of the political studies department at Bar Ilan University.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.

The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza left 43,391 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health and caused a humanitarian disaster.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army carried out new deadly strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory and in Lebanon.

At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli raid on an apartment building in Barja, south of Beirut, the Health Ministry said.

Mr. Gallant had reiterated in recent weeks his objective of pushing back Hezbollah fighters from the approaches to the Lebanese-Israeli border, to allow the approximately 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel displaced by the incessant fire of the Lebanese movement to return home.

In support of Hamas, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023. After a year of cross-border shooting, the situation degenerated into open war in September.

More than 1,990 people have been killed across Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP count Thursday evening, based on official reports.