Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, replacing him with Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday, amid longstanding public acrimony between Gallant and Netanyahu even as Israel has been engaged in a multifront war against Iran and its terror proxies.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said, “Unfortunately, while in the first months of the [war] there was trust [between him and Gallant] and very fertile work, in recent months the trust was eroded between me and the defense minister.” 

Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” between the ministers’ views on how to run Israel’s concurrent wars, which were “accompanied by statements and actions that went against government and cabinet decisions.” 

“I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they widened. They came into the public’s awareness in unacceptable ways, and worse than that, the enemy came to know about it,” Netanyahu said. 

In his own statement, Gallant said, “the security of the State of Israel always was and always will remain [his] life’s mission.”

As defense minister, Gallant had built close ties with senior U.S. defense officials, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant had become the Biden administration’s primary channel to the Netanyahu government in recent months, due in large part to frayed ties between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said, “Minister Gallant has been an important partner on all matters related to the defense of Israel. As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next Minister of Defense. We refer you to the Israeli government for more information on its personnel decisions.”

Netanyahu has long had a tense relationship with Gallant, firing the defense minister in March 2023 after Gallant made a public statement opposing the government’s planned judicial reform. Netanyahu later walked backed the move, following widespread protests that broke out in the hours after the initial reports that Gallant had been fired.

Netanyahu came close to dismissing Gallant in September, but held off after a coordinated attack, believed to have been carried out by Israel, in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded, incapacitating broad swaths of the Iran-backed terror group’s membership.

Gallant has criticized Netanyahu for not having a clear “day after” plan for Gaza, and for not pursuing a hostage deal more aggressively. 

Moshe Emilio Lavi, brother-in-law of Omri Miran who has been held hostage in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, said that “hostages’ families found an ally in Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, who warned the government was compromising Israel’s security before Oct 7” – a reference to Gallant’s opposition to the government’s judicial reform. 

Gallant “gave a sober view of the hostage crisis yet vowed to prioritize their release. Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu fired him for political reasons as war rages on. Despite his failings, MoD Gallant served as a moderating force in a government filled with reckless, extremist ministers and a Prime Minister facing three indictments, with associates under investigation, who hasn’t always prioritized the nation’s interests over his own,” Lavi wrote on X.

A Netanyahu loyalist, Katz is expected to cooperate with the prime minister’s vision for the war. As foreign minister, Katz became known for posting AI-generated images mocking anti-Israel leaders including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Though Katz has a large power base within Netanyahu’s Likud party, he has mostly used it as a lever of pressure on the prime minister to advance himself to more senior ministerial positions. 

Gideon Sa’ar, who served as minister without portfolio after joining the cabinet in September to bolster the war effort, will replace Katz as foreign minister. As the wars in Gaza and Lebanon move to less-intensive phases, Sa’ar’s elevation to a senior portfolio could enable him and his party to remain in the coalition fold. Ze’ev Elkin, who like Sa’ar is a former Likud minister and onetime Netanyahu confidante, is expected to receive a cabinet post, as well.

Netanyahu said that the move “adds to the stability of the coalition and the government, which are important at all times, especially in days of war.” 

The coalition needs extra support to survive at this time, because of major internal disagreements over a bill that would remove the greatest penalty for young Haredi men who do not enlist in the IDF. Several Likud lawmakers and Sa’ar’s party have said they would vote against the bill. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir supported the firing, saying that Gallant was still “a captive of the conception that we cannot reach total victory.” 

Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz posted on X that this was “politics at the expense of national security.”

Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman posted on X that this is a “banana republic” and argued that “if a defense minister can be replaced in the middle of a war, it is also possible to replace a prime minister who failed in his duties and neglected national security.” 

Several activist groups advocating for a hostage deal and calling for Netanyahu’s ouster called on Israelis to protest in the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and beyond. Demonstrators blocked the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv and clashed with police.