CNN
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after months of clashes over domestic politics and differences over Israel’s war efforts.
In a recorded statement Tuesday evening, Netanyahu said that “during the last months, this trust between me and the Minister of Defense has cracked.”
Israel Katz, currently the foreign minister, will become defense minister and Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz as foreign minister, the prime minister’s office said Tuesday.
Gallant responded to the decision shortly after it was made public, posting on X that the “security of Israel has been and will always be my lifelong mission.”
Israel’s political class has long speculated that Netanyahu would fire Gallant and replace him with a political ally to shore up his domestic power. Netanyahu has struggled to maintain a hold over his fragile governing coalition, a muddle of competing interests, whose collapse could spell the end of his leadership.
The relationship between both men was rarely cordial and often caustic. There was little love lost between them – over the state of negotiations with Hamas, Israel’s military strategy and Netanyahu’s bid to bring in a sweeping overhaul of the judiciary in 2023.
Netanyahu and Gallant have often disagreed over the war in Gaza. In August, Gallant told a closed-door Knesset committee that Netanyahu’s goal of “absolute victory” in Gaza was “nonsense,” according to Israeli media. Netanyahu then took the extraordinary step of releasing a press statement accusing Gallant of adopting an “anti-Israel narrative.”
Gallant was also highly critical of Netanyahu’s emphasis on Israeli control of a strip of territory along the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, calling it a “moral disgrace.” In cabinet, he voted against continued occupation there, seeing it as a hinderance to a ceasefire and hostage deal. “If we want the hostages alive, we don’t have time,” he said.
Netanyahu had faced pressure from far-right members of his cabinet to dismiss him, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir saying in September that he had been demanding Gallant’s ouster for months “and the time has come to do so immediately.”
Netanyahu’s relationship with Gallant deteriorated when the prime minister threatened to fire him in March 2023, after he criticized the government’s judicial overhaul legislation. The bill, which provoked widespread popular protests in Israel, would have granted the ruling coalition more sway in selecting judges.
Gallant was the first minister to oppose it, saying: “The deepening split is seeping into the military and security agencies – this is a clear, immediate and real danger to Israel’s security. I will not facilitate this.”
Netanyahu said he would fire the defense minister, but reversed his position following pressure. The rancor between the two men has persisted and grown since the Hamas attack last October.
One source of tension has been the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men into the Israel Defense Forces, which Gallant has supported. Far-right cabinet members – on whom Netanyahu depends for the survival of his government – have resisted the measure.
This is a developing story and will be updated.