By Abiola Olawale
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his decision to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, following months of tension over the war in Gaza.
The Prime Minister said the decision to sack Gallant was due to a lack of trust.
According to him, the trust between him and Gallant has broken in the past few months.
Netanyahu said: “In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is needed between the prime minister and minister of defence. Unfortunately, although in the first months of the war there was such trust and there was very productive work, in recent months that trust between me and the minister of defense has been broken.
“Significant differences have emerged between me and Gallant in the management of the war, and these differences were accompanied by statements and actions that contradicted the decisions of the government and the decisions of the cabinet. I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they kept getting wider. They also came to the public’s attention unacceptably, and worse than that, they came to the attention of the enemy – our enemies took pleasure in this and derived a lot of benefit from it.
“Differing opinions in open discussions, everyone knows, those who know me – this is my way of managing the discussions and the evaluations and decisions. Everyone knows this. However, the crisis of trust that gradually opened up between me and the minister of defense has come into the public domain, and this crisis does not allow for the proper continuation of management of the war. I’m not the only one who says this, most of the members of the government and most of the members of the cabinet share this feeling that it is impossible to continue like this.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu also named Israel Katz as the new defence minister.
Reacting to his sack, Gallant said he is still committed to ensuring the country’s security. In
“The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life,” Gallant said on X, minutes after Netanyahu announced his dismissal.
The New Diplomat reports that Israel is currently at war against Hamas after an attack on 7 October 2023 allegedly linked to Palestinian militants.
More than 690 Palestinians have been reportedly killed since then, the Palestinian health ministry says, as Israeli forces have intensified their nearly daily search and arrest raids.
In Gaza, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been reportedly killed as a result of Israeli military action, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It would also be recalled that the Israeli military recently announced the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party, Hezbollah.
The Israeli military claimed it killed Hezbollah’s leader in an air attack on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
The death of Nasrallah has sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a dominant political and military figure for more than three decades.
