“Your mandate will end within 48 hours of sending this letter. I would like to thank you for your work as Minister of Defense,” says the letter from the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, dated this Tuesday, November 5. Through this letter, the dismissal of Yoav Gallant, Netanyahu’s colleague in the right-wing Likud party, has been announced, citing differences in the way of managing the war in Gaza and Lebanon. He does so, in addition to being surrounded by criticism for the measure adopted, with the country under an entrenched conflict, mired in violence and uncertainty.
Immediately, the center of Tel Aviv became the scene of protests as hundreds of people tried to cut off traffic on one of its main arteries. At the same time, there are calls to take to the streets in other parts of the country. About 1,000 people surround the area around the president’s residence in the center of Jerusalem and marches are organized in other regions of the country. “This is a night in which none of us know what is going to happen in the world,” said Eliazar Waldman, 37, one of the protesters in front of Netanyahu’s house, in reference to the elections in the United States and the protests. Hundreds of people have shouted in favor of the release of the hostages in Gaza and against the dismissal of the minister. Waldman’s wife Shaman, also 37, adds that they fear the captives’ lives are now more in danger.
Netanyahu and Gallant had clashed on several occasions throughout the 13 months of war in which the prime minister has always tried to impose his hard line on the army, which was interpreted as a slam of the door on the possibility of achieving a truce, liberating to those kidnapped in Gaza and move towards the end of the war.
Gallant’s replacement, at a critical moment in the conflict, will be the former Foreign Minister, Israel Katz. The new head of diplomacy will be Gideon Saar, signed as minister without executive portfolio just a month ago amid rumors of Gallant’s departure. Sources close to the head of the Government do not rule out new dismissals and point to the head of the Armed Forces, General Herzi Halevi, and the head of the internal secret services (Shin Bet), Ronen Bar, according to the newspaper. Haaretz.
To justify the dismissal, Netanyahu has alluded to a “crisis of confidence” that has been increasing and that prevents Gallant from remaining at the head of the ministry because he has made statements and carried out actions that “contradict the decisions of the Government,” according to some words recorded on video. According to him, Israel’s enemies have even benefited from these internal fractures in the cabinet as they are more than evident. Gallant, for his part, remarked: “The security of the State of Israel has always been and will continue to be the mission of my life.”
The prime minister has announced the changes while the Gaza and Lebanon fronts remain open with a high level of deaths and destruction, Iran has promised to respond to the latest Israeli attack and there are still 101 hostages kidnapped in the Strip. They have not left Gaza for more than two months, neither alive nor dead, none of them. Meanwhile, families have been assuming that around half could already be dead. All this is happening without any sign of a ceasefire agreement despite the fact that contacts were resumed two weeks ago after two frozen months.
Applause from the ultras
The reactions to the changes in the Government have not been long in coming on a day in which the country, in addition to following the different fronts of the contest, has its attention focused on the presidential elections that its main ally, the United States, is holding this Tuesday. Joined. On the one hand, Gallant’s departure has been celebrated from the most radical wing of the Executive. The head of the National Security portfolio, Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultranationalist settler who despite the more than 43,000 deaths in Gaza calls for a tougher hand, has congratulated Netanyahu, as published on his profile on the social network ). Ben Gvir considers Gallant a liability to “total victory.” “The prime minister did well by dismissing him,” he concluded.
On the contrary, the forum that brings together the families of the kidnapped, both civilians and military, expresses through a statement its “deep concern” about Netanyahu’s decision and “how this sudden change can affect the fate of the 101 hostages.” In any case, they are already calling on Katz to “give priority to an agreement” and “work in close collaboration with the mediators and the international community to guarantee the immediate release” of all of them. “The main obligation of the Minister of Defense is to guarantee the security of our citizens. […]. Our future as a society depends on the return of all the hostages and the end of this war,” they add.
For opposition leader Yair Lapid, who calls on citizens to protest in the streets, Gallant’s fall represents “an act of madness.” “Netanyahu is selling out Israel’s security and army fighters for his shameful political survival,” adds Lapid in X.
The government crisis coincides with a new scandal affecting the prime minister after it became known that leaks carried out by some people close to him could have harmed contacts and negotiations to free the captives, according to what is being investigated by a court. Netanyahu denies this, while members of the opposition and relatives of the hostages accuse the Government of sabotaging the negotiations.
“There is an unprecedented campaign against the office of the prime minister in the middle of a war,” a statement denounced shortly before the dismissal of the head of Defense. According to this version, it would be an attempt to “inflate the accusations against the prime minister and those around him.” “But the current matter will not yield anything at all either,” the text adds. “After a year in which there has been an avalanche of criminal leaks of Security Cabinet conversations and discussions about hostages and missing persons, which have provided our enemies with very valuable information, the only two investigations that have been open are directed against the prime minister’s office and not against the leakers,” the statement added.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is one of those held by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza since October 2023, for more than a year, said during one of the protest marches in Tel Aviv that the leaks, which appeared in the media Jewish Chroniclefrom the United Kingdom, and the German tabloid Bild“they support Netanyahu’s propaganda lies to torpedo the agreement” that will allow them to return home.
