When the Gaza conflict began with the death of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of 240 hostages—the deadliest day in Israeli history—on 7 October last year, Israel Defence Secretary Yoav Gallant, 65, started dressing only in black, the colour of mourning. On 9 October, Gallant warned that the price Gaza would pay “will change reality for generations”, and Israel was imposing a total blockade with a ban on food and fuel imports.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has cancelled plans to meet United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as the region braces for an expected response by Israel to Iran’s missile attack last week.
In a statement to mark 100 days of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, Gallant said that only military pressure would achieve the twin aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages, in line with Netanyahu. But he has since voiced frustration over an apparent lack of post-war plans for Gaza.
Netanyahu critic
This had led him to publicly challenge Netanyahu, arguing in a televised statement in May that a political decision must be made regarding Gaza's 'day after', and declared he would not support open-ended Israeli military rule over Gaza. Gallant revealed that—soon after the conflict began in October—he had floated a plan for a new Palestinian administration not linked to Hamas but “got no response” from various Israeli cabinet forums.
Arguments have since broken out repeatedly between Netanyahu and Gallant—a series of confrontations that have tested the notion of cabinet unity to breaking point over the past 18 months. Netanyahu continues to insist that the two can work together “as long as there is trust” but that all ministers are beholden to cabinet decisions. “And that is the main thing that is now being tested,” the Israeli premier recently told a press conference. He dismissed calls by Gallant and others in the security establishment to accept the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the southern border area of the Gaza Strip as the price of a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Polish immigrant
Born in Jaffa in 1958 to Polish Jewish immigrants, Gallant’s father, Michael, had fought in World War II in Europe and then in Operation Yoav in the Negev desert during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. His father named him Yoav in honour of that battle. Young Gallant spent his early years living with his grandparents in a small apartment in Jaffa.
In 1976, Gallant was drafted into Israel’s mandatory military service and served in the Israeli Navy’s elite commando unit, Flotilla 13. After a half-dozen years, he went to Alaska for two years, during which he worked as a lumberjack. He returned to the navy and eventually ascended to commander of Flotilla 13.
His involvement with Israeli politics began when he became the military secretary for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2002, and in 2005, he headed the nation’s Southern Command. In that capacity, he played a key role in Operation Cast Lead, the first major conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which lasted from late December 2008 to mid-January 2009. Gallant appeared set to become the military’s chief of staff in 2010 before reports surfaced accusing him of appropriating public land (a charge of which he was later cleared). In 2011, he retired from the military as a major general.
Entry into politics
Gallant made his first foray into politics in 2015, when he ran for the Knesset with Kulanu—a small centre-right party that had left Netanyahu’s Likud party to prioritise socio-economic reform. His presence on the party list helped to bolster its security credentials, and during the election, he criticised the Netanyahu-led government for failing to take any action against the threat posed by tunnels built in the Gaza Strip— some of them leading into Israeli territory. Still, Kulanu joined Netanyahu’s government after the election, which gave Netanyahu a third consecutive term. Gallant was appointed minister of construction and housing.
When elections were held in 2018, Gallant joined Likud. Four years later, he became the defence minister of Netanyahu’s right-wing government. In 2023, when Netanyahu pushed an unpopular plan to curb the judiciary’s independence, Gallant became the most high-profile member of the government coalition to publicly break with him, arguing that the plan would hurt Israel’s security. Netanyahu responded by announcing his intention to fire Gallant but backed off after hundreds of thousands of Israelis flooded the streets in protest.
After Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, Netanyahu formed a war cabinet comprising himself, Gallant, and Benny Gantz—another retired Israeli army general—as its primary decision-making members.
Since then, both Gallant and Gantz have been publicly critical of Netanyahu’s reluctance to work with them to create an exit strategy from Gaza once the conflict has ended. Gallant has claimed that Netanyahu’s ultimate aim is to occupy the Gaza Strip, and in May 2024, as the war cabinet was on the verge of being dissolved, Gallant said in a speech that Netanyahu’s approach would lead to “blood and many victims, with no aim.”
Gantz left the war cabinet weeks later—soon after being dissolved by Netanyahu—although Gallant remained in Netanyahu’s government as defence minister.
ICC arrest warrant
On 20 May 2024, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that he would seek arrest warrants for Gallant and Netanyahu, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammad Deif, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Gallant and others denounced the move for drawing an equivalence between the actions of Israel and those of Hamas.
Gallant—who now finds himself the main moderating voice in Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet—has continued to clash with Netanyahu after he raised the demand in July that Israel must retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt that the Israeli army had entered in May.
The demand came after Hamas conceded its key demand that Israel commit to a permanent end to hostilities. In late August, he confronted Netanyahu in a shouting match as the cabinet voted to commit to a military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor—a move which Gallant said was being forced on the Israeli army at the expense of hostages. Now, there seems to be a deadlock, with Netanyahu wanting to sack Gallant but Gallant refusing to go.
Deepening rift
The deepening rift between the two men was highlighted when Israeli TV claimed that Gallant had been excluded from at least three security consultations that Netanyahu held with a select group of ministers in recent days amid the intensified fighting with Hezbollah.
Israel's Channel 12 news reported that the most recent meeting, held on Wednesday before a security cabinet session, included the premier, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem. The news agency noted that the ad hoc forum is not an official body.
Similar meetings with a slightly different mix of ministers were also held last Saturday and Sunday also without Gallant, the report said. On Thursday, though, his office said Gallant approves “the continued offensive activity” against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
With Netanyahu seemingly determined to maintain Israel’s military offensive against both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, Gallant’s ability to act as a voice of moderation with the Israeli premier is increasingly unlikely to have much impact.
