Outgoing Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu’s ‘corrupt’ policies in an emotional speech Tuesday night after he was sacked over a breakdown in trust during the Gaza war against Hamas.

Addressing the nation just hours after his dismissal, Gallant suggested that a ‘moral darkness’ had fallen on the prime minister and claimed that his removal was due to disagreements over contentious issues faced by Israel‘s government.

This, he said, included disagreements over a new hostage deal and a ‘corrupt’ bill to exempt Orthodox Jews from completing IDF military service.

Referring to the hostage deal, Gallant said that Israel would have to make ‘some painful compromises’ in order to return the remaining hostages to their families and called on the government to bring home hostages while they are ‘still alive’.

‘The State of Israel will know how to withstand these compromises, and the IDF will know how to secure them’, he said, stressing its ‘moral and ethical commitment to bringing back our sons and daughters’.

He also noted how the IDF military service exemption was ‘discriminatory’ as Israelis will have to deal with several security challenges in the years to come.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to members of the press shortly after he was sacked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who cited a lack of trust. Gallant slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu’s ‘corrupt’ policies

Anti government protesters take to streets after the Israeli prime minister announced that he had fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant

‘Everyone must serve in the IDF and participate together in the mission of defending the State of Israel,’ he said.

‘We must not allow a corrupt and flawed law to pass in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) that would exempt tens of thousands of citizens from bearing the burden.’

Gallant was referring to members of the ultra-Orthodox community who were historically exempted from mandatory service until a Supreme Court decision in June.

The decision to oust Gallant came amid controversy over the decision to draft 7,000 more ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews into the military.

The order came after a first round of 3,000 draft orders were sent out in July, sparking protests from the ultra-Orthodox community.

Gallant also cited Netanyahu’s unwillingness to form a National Commission of Inquiry for October 7, which the outgoing minister said was necessary for the truth to ‘see the light of day’.

Netanyahu fired Gallant yesterday night, stating that ‘over the past few months [trust] has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defence minister’.

Gallant, who only returned to the post in April after being sacked last March, will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the office reported.

Hundreds took to the streets to protest in a march through Tel Aviv as news broke of the decision.

The mother of a hostage said: ‘Gallant’s dismissal sends a clear message – there is no one left to prevent the foiling of hostage deal; it’s time to take to the streets.’

sraeli forces intervene with protesters blocking the Ayalon Highway (Highway 20) while people take the streets to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of Defense Minister

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Oct 31

Moral darkness has fallen on Israel’, defence minister declares

Netanyahu posted on social media after issuing the pithy statement, writing on Twitter/X: ‘We must all stand strong against refusal.’

Netanyahu said in his video statement that in spite of ‘fruitful work’ with Gallant at the beginning of the war in Gaza, trust had ‘cracked’ in recent months.

‘I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they kept getting wider,’ he continued.

‘They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy — our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it.’

Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz as Foreign Minister.

Gallant had also voiced concerns that divisions within society were hurting morale in the military and empowering Israel’s adversaries.

‘I see how the source of our strength is being eroded,’ he said last Saturday.

Netanyahu insisted in his announcement that most politicians agreed with him on the decision to sack Gallant, opposing the conscription order.

He did not give a specific reason why trust had broken down.

But National Unity lawmaker Orit Farkash Hacohen said of the decision to sack Gallant: ‘There is no low to which this government will not sink.

‘A Defense Minister who announces conscription orders for thousands of Haredim is fired in the middle of a war on the eve of an [expected Iranian] attack for the sake of the evasion law.’

Members of the Israeli security personnel detain an ultra-Orthodox Jewish protester during a demonstration against conscription in Jerusalem on October 31

A protester attends a rally demanding the release of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 4

National Unity chair Benny Gantz, formerly of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, posted: ‘Politics at the expense of national security.’

Gantz announced he was resigning his post over frustrations surrounding Netanyahu’s handling of the war in June.

Yair Golan, leader of The Democrats party, called on the public to ‘hit the streets’ and strike in light of the decision.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir supported Netanyahu’s decision.

‘I congratulate the prime minister on the decision to dismiss Gallant. With Gallant, who is still deeply trapped in his own conception, it is impossible to achieve a complete victory.’

The United States meanwhile praised  Gallant as an ‘important partner’.

‘Minister Gallant has been an important partner on all matters related to the defense of Israel. As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next minister of defense,’ a State Department spokesperson said.

Gallant had clashed with Netanyahu over the future of the war in Gaza in recent months.

In his eyes, Israel should have shifted its focus more squarely to the northern border with Lebanon, where the military launched a major campaign to stop Iran-backed Hezbollah militants from launching cross-border attacks.

While in sync with Gallant on Lebanon, Netanyahu disagreed with him on the future of Gaza, where the fired defence chief thought Israel should be looking for ways to end the war.

Nearly a year into the war in Gaza, Gallant declared that ‘the centre of gravity’ of Israel’s military campaign was ‘shifting north’ to Lebanon, calling it ‘the beginning of a new phase of the war, which requires courage, determination and perseverance’.

Days later, Israel announced ground troops had begun raids against Hezbollah inside Lebanon, after a spate of attacks that had decimated the powerful group’s leadership.

‘Gallant was one of the first to support the idea that Israel needed to take the initiative in the north, just days after the October 7 attacks,’ said Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical expert at the Middle East-based security consultancy Le Beck.

Calev Ben-Dor, a former analyst at Israel’s foreign ministry, said the ‘reasoning was that in a war, it is preferable to fight the more powerful foe first, and Hezbollah’s strength far outweighed Hamas’s’.

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Olufemi Oluyede, who was appointed acting Chief of Army Staff by President Bola Tinubu last week, has been decorated with the new rank of lieutenant-general, an indication he is set to be made substantive army chief.

Mr Oluyede, formerly a major-general, was decorated with the new rank at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The decoration suggests Mr Oluyede will permanently replace Taoreed Lagbaja, a lieutenant general, who has been indisposed for several weeks.

Former President Trump is projected to win the presidency, securing a second term nearly four years after he left Washington under a cloud of ignominy and with an uncertain political future, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

DDHQ made the call after declaring Trump the projected winner of Pennsylvania and Alaska, which got him to exactly 270 electoral votes.

Trump defeated Vice President Harris in an election that saw a number of unexpected developments: A criminal trial involving Trump during the campaign, two assassination attempts against the former president and a change atop the Democratic ticket after President Biden dropped out of the race.

He becomes the first president in more than 120 years to lose the White House, and then to come back and win it again, after President Grover Cleveland in 1892.

Trump secured the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House following a roughly 100-day sprint of a campaign between him and Harris, with polling in seven key battleground states showing very little separation between the two candidates right up until Election Day.

The former president ultimately won a convincing victory, flipping Georgia back into his column, holding North Carolina and shattering the “blue wall.” He was projected to narrowly win the popular vote, something he failed to do in 2016 and that Republicans have only done once since 1992.

The former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), capitalized on voter discontent with higher costs, a surge in migration at the southern border and instability abroad during the Biden administration to pitch voters on a return to his policies.

Exit polls showed Trump making huge gains with Latino voters, bolstering his margins in rural areas and running nearly even with Harris among young men, a demographic Trump’s campaign aggressively courted.

Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history, to extend the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, to impose universal tariffs on foreign imports, to roll back protections for transgender youth, to shut down the Education Department and to curb environmental regulations. He has also signaled he will seek to stock his administration with loyalists.

Trump overcame what was expected to be a huge deficit with female voters. Harris leaned into the issue of abortion rights after three of Trump’s picks for the Supreme Court joined other conservatives in overturning the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022. This was the first presidential election to take place since the end of Roe.

The election of Trump could give the GOP president a chance to strengthen the conservative grip on the high court, as Republicans regained the majority in the Senate.

Trump narrowly won the White House in 2016, but lost his reelection bid in 2020. He spent the weeks after that election pushing unproven claims of widespread fraud, culminating in a violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, where his supporters tried to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.

He was indicted on federal charges in Washington, D.C., in 2023 over his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. But Trump has signaled he will swiftly move to fire special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the matter, kneecapping a major legal case against him.

Trump’s rhetoric and conduct during his first term has drawn scrutiny from several former Cabinet officials and top aides, including some who compared him to an authoritarian. He was indicted in four separate jurisdictions in 2023 and was convicted in New York City on 34 felony counts in May. He was impeached twice during his first term and left office with a favorability rating below 40 percent. And he left Washington in 2021 without attending his successor’s inauguration.

A number of politicians and pundits all but declared him politically dead, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lashing out at Trump in a February 2021 speech from the Senate floor. McConnell did not vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, however.

If Trump had been convicted, it could have ended his political career and prevented him from running for the White House again. Instead, he now stands to further shift the GOP in his image, while McConnell’s position as Senate leader will end in January.

In a sign of how wrong some were in predicting Trump’s political demise, he coasted to the GOP nomination thanks to a loyal base of supporters, and he appeared to be on a glide path to the presidency in July, when he survived an assassination attempt, rallied the full force of the party behind him at the GOP convention and led Biden in the polls.

But Biden dropped out later that month and was replaced by Harris, who galvanized Democratic voters and raised record sums of money. Trump struggled initially to respond to the change in opponent, and his rocky performance at a September debate further frustrated Republicans as the race tightened.

Trump gained in the polls in the closing weeks of the campaign, however, showing strength with Black and Latino voters. Both are key voting blocs that helped propel him to victory.

His campaign relied on a previously untested strategy of partnering with outside groups to reach voters in battleground states, a method that managed to overcome the stronger infrastructure of the Harris campaign.