Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu fires Defence Minister Yoav Gallant due to breach of trust after disagreements over war management
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing “significant gaps” between their respective positions on the war against Hamas and Hezbollah.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz has been offered the defense job, while Gideon Saar has been tapped to take his position if he leaves, according to Israeli media.
“Serious differences arose between Gallant and me regarding the campaign’s management, with these disagreements accompanied by statements and actions that contradicted both government and cabinet decisions,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday, explaining his move.
According to Netanyahu, wartime requires “complete trust” between the head of government and the defense minister and that trust “has eroded” between him and Gallant in recent months.
“I made repeated efforts to bridge these gaps, but they only widened. These issues even reached the public in an unacceptable manner, and, worse, became known to our enemies, who took pleasure and found advantage in it,” the prime minister added.
Netanyahu praised Gallant’s replacement as a “bulldozer with quiet strength and responsible determination,” noting that Katz had headed the finance and intelligence ministries before taking on his current role.
The White House was “very surprised” by Gallant’s firing, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing an unnamed US official. A National Security Council spokesperson called Gallant “an important partner on all matters related to the defense of Israel” but said that Washington will “work collaboratively” with his replacement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) / Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO) / Anadolu Agency © Getty Images
This is the second time Netanyahu has fired Gallant. The first time was in March 2023, when the defense minister openly criticized the government’s judicial reforms, which he said divided Israeli society and threatened the military.
Following widespread street protests, Netanyahu reversed his decision in early April. A potential security agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia would be separate from a previously planned “mega-deal” with Israel, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing sources.
People familiar with the matter told the outlet that Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban visited the White House last week and met with his US counterpart Jake Sullivan, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein.
The talks focused on the two countries’ bilateral relations, the sources claimed, saying the parties aim to ink a package on security, technology and economic agreements before US President Joe Biden leaves office in January.
The security agreement discussed at the meeting would be separate from Washington’s efforts to advance a so-called “mega-deal” that would include the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, one of the sources claimed.
Before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the Biden administration had been pushing ahead with the mega-deal, which would also have included an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation. The White House believed that if the nuclear agreement was part of a broader deal, the US Senate might be more likely to ratify it, the Axios report said.
The report said that the push by Biden to sign a security accord with Riyadh was also aimed at strengthening the US position in the Gulf amid growing Chinese and Russian influence in the region.
As part of those efforts, Biden officially designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally in March 2022, upgrading its relationship with Doha. In September 2023, the US and Bahrain sealed a Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement and in 2024, Biden designated the UAE as a Major Defense Partner.
Source X/RT/AP