Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant . The dramatic turn of events came at 7 p.m. directly to the media via Whatsapp. The announcement, in an official letter in PDF format, explains in a single line that " the mandate expires within 48 hours ." The prime minister personally delivered the same letter to Gallant by hand during a brief meeting in his office in Jerusalem. After a quick exchange of sentences, Netanyahu recorded a video to make public that he had relieved the Defense Minister of his duties. In his place will be Israel Katz, who until now was Foreign Minister , who will in turn be occupied by Gideon Saar. "Unfortunately, even if in the first months of the war there was trust and very fruitful work, in recent times this trust has been damaged between me and the Defense Minister," explained the prime minister, who added that he had "made many attempts to fill these gaps, but they continued to grow. Our enemies have taken pleasure in this and have benefited a lot."
Gallant had his say on X: "The security of the State of Israel has been and will always be my life's mission," he wrote. In short, a sudden coup while waiting for the announced attack from Tehran and, above all, while America is busy following a crucial vote like never before. "The trick of firing Gallant is clear. Bibi knows that the attention of the US administration is focused on the elections and no one will respond in real time to this maneuver," commented Eliran Bykhovsky, of the International Union of Socialist Youth. The opposition's reaction was immediate: "Take to the streets," wrote the president of the Democrats Yair Golan on X.
Israelis didn’t need to be asked twice: Thousands took to the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv . Television stations showed images of police setting up barricades near the prime minister’s residence in the holy city and outside the army headquarters in Tel Aviv, where protesters blocked the Ayalon Highway and set fires. Walla, citing a source close to Netanyahu, said the prime minister was also planning to fire Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar. But while the prime minister has sole authority to replace the head of internal security, the defense minister is in charge of the IDF. And Katz appears intent on following Bibi’s orders, although the prime minister’s office has denied the claim. The political earthquake hit Israel just two days after the leak scandal that led to the arrest of the prime minister's security spokesman and a few hours after the news of a new criminal investigation into Bibi's office, handled by the Israeli police's serious crimes unit, Lahav 433. The investigations are linked to reports that the prime minister had attempted to keep secret conversations about the management of the war in Gaza, with his office manipulating the minutes and transcripts of cabinet meetings. An extremely sensitive investigation on which the media had been subjected to absolute silence until Tuesday. Then the green light was given by the judges, who however vetoed the publication of the details. In the evening, however, Channel 12 revealed that the police had already raided Netanyahu's office last Saturday: an event that - to date - is unprecedented.
(Online Union)
