stan van houcke: PM Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant

dinsdag 5 november 2024

PM Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant

Israel News, Tuesday, 05.11.2024

PM Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, blaming "significant gaps on how to conduct the [Gaza] war." U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said that Hamas again refused to release a limited number of hostages to secure a cease-fire. An Israel Police serious crimes unit is conducting a criminal investigation into events dating from the beginning of the war following a request by a senior member of Netanyahu's office. Victims of the October 7 massacre and their families demanded a state commission of inquiry. More than 100 patients will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday, a WHO official said. Iran's foreign minister said that "unlike" Israel, his country does not seek escalation in the Middle East, but reserved the right to defend itself against Israel's attack with a "measured and calculated" response.

Here's what you need to know 396 days into the war

What happened today

■ ISRAEL: PM Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.Netanyahu blamed a "fracturing of trust" between Gallant and himself, triggered by "significant gaps on how to conduct the war," adding that "these gaps were accompanied by statements and actions [by Gallant] that went against government and cabinet decisions."

Gallant will be replaced as defense minister by Israel Katz, currently Israel's foreign minister. Gideon Sa'ar, a minister without a portfolio, will assume the role of foreign minister.
Following the announcement, Gallant said on X that "the security of the state of Israel is and always will be my life's mission."
Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that Gallant's firing is another step in "efforts" to torpedo a cease-fire hostage deal.
Yair Golan, who heads Israel's new center-left party The Democrats, took to X to call for a general strike and urged Israelis to take to the streets in protest.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Netanyahu had "made the right decision … with Gallant, who is still deeply trapped in his own conceptions, it is impossible to achieve a complete victory."
Israel Police's Lahav 433 national investigations unit, which specializes in serious crimes including public corruption offenses, is conducting a criminal investigation related to events from the beginning of the war. The investigation, which began in June after a senior member of Netanyahu's office contacted the unit, was under a gag order until an Israeli court cleared it for publication Tuesday.
An Israeli court approved the Shin Bet's request to extend the arrest of PM Netanyahu's spokesperson Eli Feldstein and another suspect for eight days in connection with the "BibiLeaks" affair.
On Monday, the Shin Bet allowed two suspects, Feldstein and an unnamed security officer, to meet with their lawyers. On Tuesday, another suspect was allowed access to a lawyer. The fourth suspect in the case, a junior IDF officer arrested Monday, is still restricted from seeking legal counsel.
October 7 massacre family members held a press conference to demand a state commission of inquiry. Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son was killed in battle in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, said "all we ask now is to know what happened, why it happened the way it did, and how we can save the next generation from making the same mistakes."
Jon Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murderedin Hamas captivity, said: "I am joining 85% of Israeli citizens who want an immediate state commission of inquiry, with the express aim of investigating everything and everyone."
An Israeli court sentenced Muslim religious leader Jamal Mustafa to three years in prison for calling on Palestinians and members of the "Islamic nation" to come to Jerusalem and join the struggle against Israel on October 12, 2023.
A drone fired at Israel from the east was intercepted near the Dead Sea in southern Israel, the IDF said.

"The hope that a new American president will foment a strategic revolution that will lead to world peace, or at least regional peace, ignores the harsh lessons the region has learned from the terms of the last two U.S. presidents, not to mention the entire history of America's relations with the Middle East" – Zvi Bar'el

■ HOSTAGES/CEASE-FIRE: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that "Hamas has once again refused to release even a limited number of hostages to secure a cease-fire and relief for the people of Gaza," a State Department readout of a conversation with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said.

Alon Nimrodi, whose son Tamir is held hostage by Hamas, said during an interview with Kan public broadcaster that no one updates the hostages' families on the status of negotiations, and that he reached out to contacts in Qatar to ask what can be done to advance the talks. "I can't describe the state's incompetence and the failure of those involved [in the talks]," he said, adding that he "has no expectations" because "nothing practical is happening."
Nimrodi also addressed the media's handling of the hostages, saying "it's unacceptable that a report about the hostages is the fifth or sixth item in the main news broadcasts."
Families of hostages blocked the southern Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv. One of the protesters said that "a government that conducts psychological warfare against its own people, while continuously forsaking them, has no mandate to continue a war."

■ GAZA: More than 100 patients, including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases, will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday to the UAE and Romania, a World Health Organization official told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken told Defense Minister Gallant that Israel must "take further actions to substantially increase and sustain humanitarian aid – including food, medicine, and other essential supplies – to civilians across all of Gaza," the State Department said
Northern Gaza residents said the IDF dropped flyers calling on them to evacuate south "for [their] own safety" before "Jabalya's downfall."
A U.S. Army soldier who was in critical condition after suffering non-combat injuries while supporting the military's pier off the coast of Gaza has died, the U.S. military said.
The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 43,391 Palestinians have been killed and 102,347 wounded since the start of the war.

■ ISRAEL-LEBANON: The Lebanese government's official news agency reported that the IDF had destroyed tens of thousands of houses and more than 30 small towns in southern Lebanon since its ground offensive began in early October.

Hezbollah fired at least 55 rockets at Israel on Tuesday, the IDF said.
The Saudi news agency Al-Hadath reported airstrikes in the village of Al-Jieh, south of Beirut. Reports in Lebanon said that three people were killed in an airstrike on a car in the southern village of Talia.
The raid conducted by Israeli naval forces last week near Batroun in northern Lebanon, in which senior Hezbollah official Imad Fadel Amhaz was apprehended and taken to Israel, were able to approach Lebanon's shores by using small boats resembling fishing vessels not detected by radar due to their size and speed, and because they were not equipped with tracking and information devices, the Lebanese newspaper Ad-Diyar reported.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry is evacuating around 100 Russian citizens from Beirut to Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.

"At a time when sirens are heard over and over again in the north of Israel and rockets from Lebanon fly across the skies over cities and villages, Israel's Arab minority remains exposed to attacks. The war brought out the inequality Israeli Arabs suffer as opposed to the Jewish population — the lack of civil defense infrastructure and government neglect. Nineteen of the 34 civilians killed in the north from rocket fire since the war outbreak in October 2023 come from the Arab community" – Deiaa Haj Yahia & Adi Hashmonai

■ ISRAEL-IRAN: Iran's foreign minister said that "unlike the Israeli regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek escalation" in the Middle East, but reserved the right to defend itself against Israel's attack with a "measured and calculated" response.

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani on Monday to discuss the importance of Iraq not being "drawn into regional conflict" as well as the need for the country to "exert control over armed groups launching unauthorized attacks from its territory."
Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq claimed responsibility for launching drones at Israel earlier on Tuesday.

■ WEST BANK: The IDF, in a joint operation with the Shin Bet, Israel Prison Service and Israel Border Police, conducted an airstrike on Monday night in the city of Jenin, targeting what they described as a group of terrorists who used gunfire and explosives against IDF forces. Two Palestinians were killed in the attack, the Health Ministry in Ramallah reported. On Tuesday, a family member of one of the men told Haaretz that there had been no clash with Israeli security forces, and that the men were not armed.

The Health Ministry reported that two Palestinians were killed by IDF fire near the village of Tammun.
The IDF and Shin Bet security service announced the arrest of over 60 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the West Bank and Lebanon.

■ SYRIA: Syrian state TV reported that Israeli "aggression" targeted the town of Al-Qusayr. Later on Tuesday, the IDF said the Air Force struck Hezbollah weapons depots near Homs.

The IDF said it intercepted a drone launched from Syria before it reached Israeli territory overnight into Tuesday.

UNRWA aid distribution in Gaza on Monday.

Israel declared war after Hamas killed at least 1,200 Israelis and wounded more than 3,300 on October 7. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health ministry reports that at least 43,391 Palestinianshave been killed. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hold hostage more than 120 soldiers and civilians, dead and alive, including foreign nationals.

The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic political and social crisis in decades, due to legislation promoted by the Netanyahu government aimed at dramatically weakening Israel's judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel's most right-wing government ever.