JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired defence minister Yoav Gallant Tuesday following public differences over the ongoing war in Gaza, replacing him with former top diplomat Israel Katz.
The surprise move to sack Gallant – who has been hawkish on Israel’s war with Hezbollah but has also recently urged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza – comes as elections are held in the United States, Israel’s top military backer.
Netanyahu and Gallant have frequently clashed over Israel’s retaliatory military offensive against Hamas following the Palestinian group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
“Over the past few months… trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defence minister,” a statement from the Netanyahu’s office said, adding that he had appointed Katz to take his place.
Gideon Saar was in turn appointed to replace Katz as foreign minister.
After his sacking, Gallant said Israel’s security would remain his life’s “mission”.
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Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
Rockets and drones
From the air and on the ground, Israeli forces pressed their multi-front campaign Tuesday against more than a year after the Gaza war began.
Authorities in Lebanon reported deadly raids across the country. The health ministry said an Israeli attack on the coastal town of Jiyeh south of Beirut killed one person and wounded 20.
A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an apartment used by Hezbollah had been the target.
The strike destroyed the top floor of a four-storey complex, an AFP correspondent said.
Air raids also hit southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.
The NNA reported that the Lebanese Red Cross and the army had recovered seven bodies from a village in the southern region of Tyre following recent heavy raids.
Hezbollah on Tuesday claimed it had fired rockets and drones into northern Israel, and also targeted Israeli troops near the border inside Lebanon.
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Tuesday’s fighting came more than a month into the Hezbollah-Israel war which has left at least 1,964 dead in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.
In neighbouring Syria, close to the border with Lebanon, the town of Al-Qusayr came under air attack for the second time in a week.
Israel’s military said it carried out “an intelligence-based strike on weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah’s munitions unit”.
Syria’s official SANA news agency said the industrial zone in Al-Qusayr was hit and Israel “also targeted some residential buildings surrounding the industrial zone”.
SANA did not report any casualties.
West Bank deaths
In the West Bank, which has seen spiralling violence since the October 7 attack on Israel, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in separate operations.
The Israeli military told AFP it had targeted “terrorists”.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 757 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the same period in the West Bank, according to official Israeli figures.
Palestinians in Gaza told AFP that whoever wins Tuesday’s presidential election in the United States must end the conflict in the territory.
“We are hanging by a thread, and like every other people in the world, we are looking for someone who can stop the war,” said Ayman al-Omreiti, 45, in Gaza City.
“Our hope is that the American people will choose someone who can end the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
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