INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, citing a &crisis of trust&, and replaced him with
close ally Israel Katz to lead the country&s war in Gaza and Lebanon.Netanyahu&s critics accused him of putting politics ahead of national
security at a time when Israel is bracing for Iranian retaliation to its [USN:L1N3M60ET TEXT:&Oct
26 airstrikes&] on the Islamic Republic.After Gallant was fired, protesters in Israel blocked highways and lit bonfires on roads, police
said.The prime minister named Gideon Saar as the new foreign minister in place of Katz.Gallant and Netanyahu, both in the right-wing Likud
party, have [USN:L1N3MC0YJ TEXT:&clashed for months&] over the objectives of Israel&s 13-month-old war in Gaza against Palestinian militant
But the timing of Gallant&s dismissal was a surprise, and came as Israel&s ally the U.S
held its presidential election.Israel&s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon have entered new phases following the killing of top commanders in
both Hamas and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.Netanyahu said Gallant has made statements that &contradict the decisions of the government
and the decisions of the cabinet&
In response, Gallant said: &The security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life&s mission.&Katz vowed the return
of Israel&s hostages from Gaza and destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah.&I accept this responsibility with a sense of mission and holy fear
for the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,& Katz said on social media platform X.As foreign minister, [USN:S8N3LA00X
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month from entering Israel over what he described as a failure to condemn an Iranian missile attack
and antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct
In September, he [USN:L8N3L80L2 TEXT:&rejected proposals&] from the U.S
and France for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon.[USN:L8N3KY0U8 TEXT:&Reports&] appeared in September that Netanyahu, under pressure from
far-right coalition partners, was considering firing Gallant.Gayil Talshir, a specialist in Israeli politics at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, believed the last straw for Netanyahu came this week when Gallant issued 7,000 draft notices for ultra-Orthodox Haredi men,
angering those in the government who oppose conscription.Itamar Ben-Gvir, a minister in Netanyahu&s coalition government, praised Tuesday&s
decision, saying Gallant was &deeply trapped in the conception& that it &is not possible to achieve absolute victory&.Israeli opposition
leader Yair Lapid said on X, however, that &firing Gallant in the middle of a war is an act of madness.&In Washington, a spokesperson for
the White House National Security Council said Gallant had been an important partner and that it would continue working collaboratively with
Katz.Gallant rose to the rank of general during a 35-year military career.France&s foreign minister will travel to Israel and the
Palestinian territories on Wednesday, a day after U.S
elections, to press Israel to engage diplomatically to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli forces issued new
evacuation orders in the northern Gaza Strip and carried out military strikes which Palestinian medics and media said had killed at least 35
people since Monday night.Acting U.N
aid chief Joyce Msuya said on X that Israeli military ground operations in northern Gaza had left Palestinians &without the essentials to
survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes.&An airstrike late on Monday damaged two
houses in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 20 people, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.Ten were
killed in central areas of the Palestinian enclave & six in separate airstrikes on Gaza City and the town of Deir Al-Balah, and four in the
town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics and health officials said.At least five others were killed in an Israeli strike on a
house in Jabalia north of Gaza City, medics said later on Tuesday.The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had
&eliminated terrorists& in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area
Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where &terrorist infrastructure sites&
had been eliminated, it said.Later on Tuesday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over Beit Lahiya ordering residents who have not yet left
their homes and shelters housing displaced families to quit the town completely.&To all those who remained at homes and shelters, you are
For your safety you have to head south,& said the leaflet, which was written in Arabic.Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders
for evacuations were aimed at emptying areas to create buffer zones.Israel says the evacuations are meant to keep civilians out of harm&s
way as its troops battle Hamas fighters.More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, health
authorities in Gaza say.The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct
7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies
& ReutersThe post Netanyahu sacks defence minister, jolting Israeli politics as war grinds on first appeared on Ariana News.
