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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday sacked his defence minister Yoav Gallant, saying that “significant gaps” had emerged between them over the management of the war.
Netanyahu said that Gallant would be replaced as defence minister by the foreign minister, Israel Katz. He added that he had asked Gideon Sa’ar, a hawkish lawyer who joined the government in September, to replace Katz as foreign minister.
The deteriorating relationship between Netanyahu and Gallant has been an open secret for more than a year, and Netanyahu mulled replacing Gallant earlier this autumn.
But despite the increasingly public feuding between the two men, the timing of the move, which comes as Israel is in the middle of a multi-front conflict with foes including Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran, was unexpected.
“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and the defence minister,” Netanyahu said in a brief statement issued by his office.
“Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, over the past few months this trust has cracked between me and the defence minister.”
In the wake of Netanyahu’s announcement, Gallant issued a short statement that did not refer to his dismissal, saying: “The security of the state of Israel always was and will remain my life’s mission”.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition, including ultranationalist national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, welcomed the move. But it was condemned by opposition politicians, with Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Democrats, calling on people to “take to the streets”.
His call was echoed by Yair Lapid, head of the largest opposition party, Yesh Atid, who described firing Gallant in the middle of the war as “an act of madness”.
“Netanyahu is selling out Israel’s security and the IDF’s fighters for [his own] disgraceful political survival,” he wrote on X.
Netanyahu’s decision — which is due to take effect within 48 hours — follows a string of public spats with his defence minister. People familiar with the relationship have previously told the Financial Times that the two men were barely on speaking terms.
The prime minister attempted to sack Gallant last year for criticising his plans for a controversial judicial overhaul, before backing down in the face of huge street protests.
More recently, they have feuded over how Gaza should be ruled once the war with Hamas is over, with Gallant criticising the prime minister for his failure to draw up a realistic plan for the enclave’s postwar governance.
They have also sparred over the vexed question of the exemption from military service for ultraorthodox men, which has been a major source of discord within Netanyahu’s five-party coalition, which relies for its survival on the support of two ultraorthodox parties.
Gallant has repeatedly argued in favour of making more ultraorthodox men to do military service, and on Monday approved the conscription of 7,000 more ultraorthodox.