Yoav Gallant, Israeli defence minister, sacked by Benjamin Netanyahu

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Key Points

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu cited a ‘crisis of trust’ for the decision, saying divisions between the pair had grown in recent months.
Gallant has been replaced by foreign affairs minister Israel Katz.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed defence minister Yoav Gallant over a ‘crisis of trust’ during the Gaza war against Hamas, his office said.

“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust between the prime minister and the defence minister is required,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office on Tuesday evening (local time).

“Over the past few months that trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defence minister,” the statement continued.

Netanyahu said he had made attempts to bridge the differences between him and Gallant but they had only grown wider and that divisions had “reached public knowledge in an unusual manner and, worse, became known to our enemies”.

That had prevented the “normal continuation of our campaign management”, he added.

Netanyahu has appointed foreign minister Israel Katz to succeed Gallant as defence minister, while Gideon Saar will become the new foreign minister.

Gallant said on Tuesday that working to ensure the country’s security would remain the “mission of his life” after Netanyahu’s dismissal.

“The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life,” Gallant said on social media platform X, minutes after Netanyahu announced Gallant’s firing.

Yoav Gallant standing in front of a blue background, with an Israeli flag.

Divisions had been growing between Yoav Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent months. Source: AAP, AP / Jacquelyn Martin

Gallant became defence minister in 2022 and was in the role when Israel launched its more than a year-long assault on Gaza in October 2023, following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel in which more than 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 43,391 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry, figures considered reliable by the United Nations.

Following the announcement of his dismissal, Gallant stressed Israel’s “moral and ethical commitment to bringing back … those kidnapped by Hamas.”

“We must do this as quickly as possible while they are still alive,” he said in a televised statement late on Tuesday.

“It is possible to bring back the hostages, but it involves painful compromises. The State of Israel will know how to withstand these compromises, and the IDF (military) will know how to secure them.”

Gallant’s sacking sparked protests in Israel, including in Tel Aviv, where hundreds of people chanted anti-Netanyahu slogans and demanded the return of hostages held in Gaza.

A group of people protesting in the middle of a street, many holding Israeli flags.

Yoav Gallant’s firing prompted protests in Tel Aviv. Source: AAP, AP / Oded Balilty

Within hours of the announcement, thousands of protesters gathered in central Tel Aviv, blocking the city’s main highway and crippling traffic.

Several thousand people demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the city.

Protesters gathered and blocked roads in several other spots across the country, and Israeli TV stations showed images of police scuffling with demonstrators.

Divisions had been growing for months

Netanyahu and Gallant, both in the right-wing Likud party, have repeatedly been at odds throughout the war in Gaza.

For months, there had been open disagreements between Netanyahu and Gallant, reflecting a wider split between Israel’s right-wing governing coalition and the military, which has long favoured reaching a deal to end the fighting and bring home scores of hostages held by Hamas.

Gallant said the war lacked clear direction, while Netanyahu reiterated that fighting could not cease until Hamas was wiped out as a governing entity and military force in Gaza.

Shortly before the Gaza conflict erupted, Netanyahu dismissed Gallant due to disagreements over the government’s plans to overhaul Israel’s judicial system, but after mass protests, the prime minister reinstated him.

Deadly airstrikes in Gaza

In northern Gaza, an airstrike late on Monday damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 20 people, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.

Ten were killed in central areas of the Palestinian enclave — six in separate airstrikes on Gaza City and the town of Deir Al-Balah, and four in the town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics and health officials said.

At least five others were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia north of Gaza City, medics said later on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over Beit Lahiya ordering residents who have not yet left their homes and shelters housing displaced families to quit the town completely.

Patients to be evacuated

Announcing plans for a rare transfer of patients out of Gaza, a World Health Organization official said more than 100 people would be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday, including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases.

In the , the Palestinian health ministry said at least seven people were killed on Tuesday during an Israeli military raid and airstrikes.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted a group of gunmen and that its forces had arrested 60 militants.

Violence has since the start of the war in Gaza, with almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gunbattle between security forces and Palestinian fighters.

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