Netanyahu reverses course on sacking defence minister

Jerusalem — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would leave defence minister Yoav Gallant in place given an escalating security crisis, reversing a decision to fire the minister that triggered more protests and raised alarm abroad.

He said the two had resolved their disagreement over Gallant’s public call last month for a halt to the government’s bitterly divisive judicial overhaul plan, which Gallant said had become a threat to Israel’s security.

Last week Netanyahu announced he would delay the dismissal.

“I’ve decided to put our differences behind us,” Netanyahu said at a Monday press conference. He said the two had worked closely together throughout the last two weeks.

As tensions mounted between Israelis and Palestinians, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teen during a military raid near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said. The ministry said 15-year-old Mohammad Balhan sustained gunshot wounds to his head, chest and abdomen.

On Friday, an Italian tourist was killed and five people were wounded in a car ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday hours after two Israeli sisters and their mother were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank.

The attacks, after a night of cross-border strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, added to heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions after Israeli police raids in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque this week.

The tensions threatened to widen when Israel responded to a barrage of rockets by hitting targets linked to the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon, but the fighting entered a lull on Friday.

A Sunday opinion poll, from Israel’s Channel 13 News, showed Netanyahu's Likud party would lose more than a third of its seats if an election were held now, and Netanyahu would fail to gain a majority with his hard-right coalition partners.

“I’m not disturbed by the poll,” Netanyahu told reporters.

The prime minister said relations with the US, which appeared strained over the government’s planned judicial overhaul, remained “stronger than ever” and the two countries enjoyed security and intelligence co-operation.

Netanyahu also addressed the issue of not yet being invited to an official visit at the White House in his latest stint as prime minister.

“There will be a visit, don’t worry,” Netanyahu said.

His government paused legislation on the overhaul to allow for compromise discussions with opposition parties after weeks of nationwide protests.

Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis, including ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, marched to an evacuated Jewish outpost in the West Bank on Monday in support of settlements viewed as illegal under international law.

Israelis from across the country travelled to the outpost of Evyatar while waving Israeli flags and chanting religious songs and slogans during the holiday week of Passover.

Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and teargas at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in nearby Beita, injuring 17 people with rubber bullets and two with gas canisters to the head, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

More than 90 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have been killed since January.

In a statement, the Samaria regional council representing settlers of the northern West Bank quoted Yossi Dagan, its leader, as having told participants that settlements were the answer to what he called a wave of terror.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right security chief in Netanyahu’s cabinet, said at the Israeli demonstration: “Now they understand why I have been pushing for the establishment of a national guard.”

Flanked by heavy guard on Monday, Ben-Gvir last week was authorised to head a national guard focused on Arab unrest.

Netanyahu held off giving him direct command after political rivals voiced concern the force could become a sectarian militia.

Many countries view Jewish settlements in the West Bank, captured from Jordan in a 1967 war, as a breach of international law. Israel disputes this and cites biblical and historical connections to the land, as well as security needs.

Reuters