Israel Prime Minister fires defence minister over ‘lack of trust’

TEL AVIV, Israel

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant citing lack of trust, Times of Israel reported. Gallant, who was a longtime rival from within the Likud Party, will be replaced by Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz, as per Times of Israel.

Times of Israel quoted a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office which stated that Netanyahu informed Gallant that his tenure as the Defence Minister would end “48 hours from the receipt of this letter.” “I would like to thank you for your service as defense minister,” the curt letter concluded, as per Times of Israel.

“Unfortunately, although in the first months of the war, there was trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defence minister,” Netanyahu said in a video statement, as per Times of Israel.

He says they disagreed on the management of the war and charged that Gallant made statements and took actions that contradict cabinet decisions. Netanyahu also accused Gallant of indirectly aiding Israel’s enemies: “I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they kept getting wider,” Times of Israel quoted him as saying.

“They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy — our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it,” Times of Israel quoted Netanyahu.

The “crisis of faith” with the defense minister “does not enable the proper continuation of the [military] campaign,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said that several cabinet and government members agreed with him “that this cannot continue. In light of this, I decided today to end the tenure of the defense minister,” Times of Israel reported. Following the dismissal, Gallant said in a post on X that the security of Israel would always be the mission of his life. “The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life,” he said.

Gallant later elaborated that there were three reasons for his dismissal – The need to draft Haredi men to the IDF, the imperative to bring back the hostages from Gaza, and the need for a state commission of inquiry in the October 7 Hamas terror and resulting conflict.

Gallant said that the ultra-orthodox Haredi parties which are a part of the coalition threatened to topple the coalition if a law was not passed. The law exempted Haredi males from participating in the war. Gallant said that he stressed that 101 Israeli hostages must be brought to Gaza even if it means letting Hamas stay in the strip.

He also called for a government investigation into the October 7 Hamas terror assault, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages as terrorists rampaged through dozens of southern Israel communities, as per Times of Israel.