Who Is Israel Katz, Israel’s new defence minister?
Al Jazeera
As Israel wages war in Gaza and Lebanon, Prime Minister Netanyahu has replaced Yoav Gallant with a hardline ally.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday evening, replacing him with Israel Katz, a 69-year-old fellow Likud member who has been foreign affairs minister since 2019.
Katz is seen as a Netanyahu ally who will be more subservient, unlike Gallant whose relationship with the longtime leader became increasingly adversarial as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon carried on.
“We will work together to lead the defence establishment to victory over our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all hostages as the most important moral mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the containment of Iranian aggression, and the safe return of the residents of the north and south to their homes,” Katz said in a statement after his appointment.
After Donald Trump’s presidential election win announced on Wednesday, Katz posted on social media that together, the United States and Israel will “strengthen the US-Israel alliance, bring back the hostages, and stand firm to defeat the axis of evil led by Iran”.
A hardline Israeli politician, Katz is a longtime ally of Netanyahu. He has held various ministerial portfolios since 2003, including agriculture, transportation, intelligence, energy, finance and twice, foreign affairs.
