Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday due to their disagreements over the prosecution of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel Katz, the country’s foreign minister, will take over for Gallant, while Gideon Sa’ar will replace him as foreign minister.
“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 defense minister,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
“I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they kept getting wider,” he added. “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.”
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Netanyahu and Gallant have clashed over the course of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has now gone on for more than a year. More hard-line members of Netanyahu’s party have pushed the prime minister to enact policies opposed to Gallant’s stances.
Shortly after the prime minister made his decision public, Gallant posted on social media, “The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life.”