Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Yoav Gallant

CNN
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after months of wrangling over domestic policy and differences over Israel's war effort.

In a recorded statement Tuesday evening, Netanyahu said that “trust between me and the defense minister has broken in recent months.”

Israel Katz, currently 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 published, posting on X that “the security of Israel has been and always will be my lifelong mission.”

Israel's political class has long speculated that Netanyahu would fire Gallant and replace him with a political ally to bolster his power at home. Netanyahu has struggled to control his fragile ruling coalition, a jumble of competing interests whose collapse could spell the end of his leadership.

The relationship between the two men was rarely cordial and often caustic. There was little agreement between them – about the status of negotiations with Hamas, Israel's military strategy and Netanyahu's attempt to bring about comprehensive judicial reform in 2023.

Netanyahu and Gallant often disagreed about the war in Gaza. In August, Gallant told a closed session of the 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, the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, calling it a “moral disgrace.” In the cabinet he voted against the continued occupation there because he saw it as an obstacle to a ceasefire and a hostage-taking agreement. “If we want the hostages to live, we don’t have time,” he said.

Netanyahu has been under pressure from far-right members of his cabinet to fire him. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in September that he had been calling for Gallant's ouster for months, “and it is time to do so immediately.”

Netanyahu's relationship with Gallant soured when the prime minister threatened to fire him in March 2023 after he criticized the government's justice reform legislation. The bill, which sparked widespread popular protests in Israel, would have given the ruling coalition more influence in selecting judges.

Gallant was the first minister to speak out against it, saying: “The increasing division is seeping into the military and security agencies – this is a clear, immediate and real danger to Israel's security. “I will not enable that.”

Netanyahu said he would fire the defense minister but changed his position under pressure. The rancor between the two men has continued and grown since the Hamas attack last October.

One source of tension has been the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox men into the Israel Defense Forces, which Gallant has supported. Far-right cabinet members – on whom Netanyahu depends for his government's survival – have opposed the measure.

This is a developing story and will be updated.