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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he would leave Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in place because of the growing security crisis, reversing a decision to fire the minister that had sparked protests and raised alarm abroad.
He said the two had decided to disagree over Gallant’s public call last month to end the government’s sweeping judicial reform plan, which Gallant says has posed a threat to Israel’s security.
Last week, Netanyahu announced that he would postpone the dismissal.
“I have decided to put our differences aside,” Netanyahu said at a press conference on Monday. He said they had been working together for the past two weeks.
Netanyahu announced late last month that Gallant had been fired. The decision sparked a wave of spontaneous mass protests and public strikes that threatened to paralyze the country, forcing Israel’s leadership to shelve divisive plans to overhaul the justice system.
In a more recent development that has raised new security concerns, an Italian tourist was killed and five others injured in a car in Tel Aviv last Friday, hours after two Israeli sisters and their mother were killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank. Bank.
The attack, which followed a night of cross-border attacks in Gaza and Lebanon, heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions following an Israeli police attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem this week. The tensions threatened to escalate as Israel responded to the rocket attacks by striking targets linked to the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon, but the fighting ended on Friday.
Israel’s attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem – one of the holiest sites in both Islam and Judaism – sparked fresh clashes and calls for peace as Easter and Ramadan coincide.
Israel pushes for recognition of the outpost
On Monday in the northern West Bank, thousands of Israelis, including several cabinet ministers, marched to evacuated Jewish outposts to show support for the settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
People from all over the country went to the Eviatar outpost while waving Israeli flags and chanting religious songs and slogans during the Easter holiday week.
Visits to Eviatar have been officially banned by the military since the evacuation in 2021, but the ban has been enforced in recent months. Israeli army spokesman Lt.-Col. Richard Hecht said the military approved Monday’s march, saying it would be “heavily monitored and heavily protected.”
Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in the nearby village of Beita, leaving 17 people with rubber bullets and two with gas canisters to the head, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
On Sunday, a poll from Israel’s Channel 13 News showed Netanyahu’s Likud party would lose more than a third of its seats if elections were held today, and he would fail to secure a majority with his far-right coalition partners.
“I am not bothered by the polls,” Netanyahu told reporters.
The prime minister said relations with the United States, which have appeared strained over plans to overhaul the government’s judiciary, remain “tight” and that the two countries enjoy security and intelligence cooperation.
Netanyahu’s government has paused legislation on the overhaul to allow for discussions and compromises with opposition parties after weeks of nationwide protests.
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