
- Sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said that the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “is not a matter of if, but when,” according to a Friday evening television news report.
Speaking on the Kan public broadcaster’s main evening news program, Walla News political correspondent Tal Shalev reported that Netanyahu had planned to axe Gallant when he returned from his visit to the United States, but the dismissal was held up by Hezbollah’s deadly attack on Majdal Shams and the killing this week of two terror chiefs.
She added that there were sources in Netanyahu’s circle who said that after replacing Gallant, the premier plans to also dismiss IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, to eliminate opposition to the way he is handling the negotiations for the return of hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 and their charges that he’s risking a deal.
- A separate television report on Friday evening said that Israel’s security chiefs urged Netanyahu at a top-level security meeting on Wednesday night to utilize the momentum provided by strikes on terror chiefs to seize the opportunity for a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
The meeting took place after the Israeli strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr on Tuesday night and after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday morning; Israel has not taken responsibility for that attack.
Channel 12 reported that Mossad chief David Barnea, who has been leading Israel’s negotiations on a deal, said at the meeting that there was a deal ready and that Israel must take it.
But Netanyahu shouted down his security chiefs, banged on the table, and told them they were lousy negotiators, according to the unsourced Channel 12 news report.
- The meeting was reportedly attended by Netanyahu, Gallant, Halevi and Bar, along with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and IDF point man for the hostage talks Nitzan Alon.
The Prime Minister’s Office immediately issued a statement denying the report, specifically the Barnea quote.
According to Channel 12, the security chiefs left the meeting concluding that Netanyahu does not want a deal at this point. It quoted unnamed security sources saying he remains stubborn “even though we have made clear to him that the security establishment can deal with the consequences of a deal.”
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The unnamed sources were also quoted asserting, “He has given up on the hostages.”
The Kan report went on to say that Netanyahu plans to elevate officials in place of Gallant, Halevi and Bar who would be dependent upon him and do his bidding. It noted that opposition New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar’s name has been repeatedly floated as a potential candidate for defense minister, despite his denials, but Shalev said that some of Netanyahu’s associates have reservations about the former senior Likud member.
Sa’ar pulled his nationalist New Hope party out of the coalition in March after Netanyahu declined to add him to the now-defunct war cabinet. He has repeatedly accused Netanyahu of failing to prosecute the war against Hamas aggressively enough.
The report also cited talk of a possible general cabinet reshuffle to create the appearance that the prime minister is not just giving Gallant the boot.
- Previous reports have predicted that the ouster could happen during the Knesset’s summer recess, which lasts from the end of July until October 27, as even chaotic protests in response to the move would be less likely in that period to cause the government to collapse and trigger new elections.
The defense minister was already a target of right-wing ire before the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, including from within Likud. Netanyahu fired Gallant in March 2023 after he called for the government to pause its controversial judicial overhaul legislation, but reinstated him a month later amid public outcry.
Source: TOI