Netanyahu Is Said to Consider Firing Israel’s Defense Minister

Dismissing the minister, Yoav Gallant, would remove a prominent voice of disagreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is contemplating dismissing his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, according to Israeli media reports, a move that would sideline one of the Biden administration’s few remaining interlocutors in the hard-line Israeli government.

A former general, Mr. Gallant, 65, is a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party. But the two have long butted heads; in recent months, Mr. Gallant has repeatedly taken positions that put him at odds with Mr. Netanyahu over the conduct of Israel’s war against Hamas and its allies.

Mr. Netanyahu would replace Mr. Gallant with Gideon Saar, whose New Hope faction commands four seats in Israel’s 120-member Parliament, according to the reports.

Neither Mr. Netanyahu nor Mr. Saar has explicitly denied that the two are negotiating his entry into the government. In a statement, Mr. Saar’s party said there was “nothing new” on the matter, while Mr. Netanyahu’s office said that the reports were incorrect.

But a growing number of Likud lawmakers have called for Mr. Gallant’s immediate dismissal, accusing him of being disloyal to Mr. Netanyahu and undermining the government.

“It’s insufferable, and the prime minister seems to understand that it’s insufferable, and that a new defense minister is needed,” Shlomo Karhi, a Likud minister, said in a televised interview. “Who will that be? What’s needed is someone the prime minister can trust.”