Israeli missile strike hits hospital in southern Lebanon
Israeli missile strike hits hospital in southern Lebanon/node/2406811/middle-east
Israeli missile strike hits hospital in southern Lebanon
An Israeli tank fires a round during a drill in the annexed Golan Heights on November 9, 2023, amid increasing cross-border tensions between Hezbollah and Israel as fighting continues in the south with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Israeli missile strike hits hospital in southern Lebanon
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health condemned the attack, describing it as “flagrant defiance of all the international laws and treaties”
Updated 11 November 2023
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Hostilities on the southern Lebanese front escalated on Friday, as Israeli shelling for the first time reached the Mays Al-Jabal Governmental Hospital, damaging it and injuring a doctor.
Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, called on “all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law throughout their military operations strictly, and to protect civilians, including humanitarian and medical workers, wherever they are.”
Pleading for all civilian sites, including homes, farms and hospitals, to be protected, he urged all sides to “exercise restraint and avoid further escalation” and said further suffering among the civilian population must be avoided.
The missile that hit the hospital did not explode but it caused damage to the emergency department and injured a doctor there, the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussein Yassin, said.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health condemned the attack, describing it as “flagrant defiance of all the international laws and treaties.” It said it holds “Israeli authorities fully responsible for this unjustifiable act, which would have led to catastrophic results had the artillery shell targeting the hospital exploded,” and called for “a thorough and fair investigation to hold those behind these crimes accountable.”
Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes were seen flying over Beirut. Meanwhile, a military source denied reports that the Lebanese army had cleared its position in the Bir Shuaib area close to the village of Blida near the southeastern border. The source said the army does not have an outpost in that region, only a mobile security point “where soldiers remain.”
Clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the southern Lebanese front have significantly escalated but remain limited to the area south of the Litani River.
Riza warned that there have been signs of rising tensions, marked by increased hostilities along the Blue Line, the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel that was set by the UN in 2000 to help determine whether Israeli forces had fully withdrawn from the country.
“We have recently witnessed alarming attacks killing and injuring civilians in south Lebanon, including women, children and media personnel,” he said.
“Significant damage has also been inflicted upon private property, public infrastructure and agricultural land, forcing over 25,000 people to be displaced. Local farmers risk their lives to harvest olives and tobacco, crucial for sustaining their livelihoods and income.”
Hezbollah on Friday mourned seven of its members, who were killed in clashed with the Israeli army. It brings the total number of the party’s fighters killed since the current fighting began to 69.
The Israeli army said its aircraft had bombed Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon in response to the firing of guided missiles from Lebanese territory. The attacks “targeted Hezbollah compounds, observation points and technological equipment,” it added.
Hezbollah said it had targeted “a gathering of enemy soldiers near Al-Asi site, opposite the Lebanese border town of Mays Al-Jabal, with guided missiles, causing direct hits.”
There have been reports that the Israeli army continues to use phosphorus shells, the firing of which in civilian areas is banned under international humanitarian law, in its operations.
On Thursday night, towns in Marjayoun District were subjected to intense attacks, in which phosphorus bombs and heavy shells were reportedly used, resulting in damage to homes in Bwayda that were evacuated when the conflict began.
The municipal stadium in the city of Sidon, which is hosting many displaced people from border areas, was the scene of a massive gathering for Friday prayers, during which worshippers prayed for the souls of those buried under the rubble in the Gaza Strip, and donations were collected.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday renewed his threats to Hezbollah, warning the party’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, that if he “makes a mistake, Hezbollah and Lebanon will bear the consequences.”
Nasrallah is due on Saturday to deliver a second speech about the conflict, following his first public address a week ago. One political observer said it was expected it to be “an escalatory speech but not to the extent of widening the conflict.”
Nasrallah’s address will coincide with an emergency Arab summit in Riyadh to discuss the latest developments in the Gaza Strip.
Sudan’s army drives paramilitaries out of Omdurman
Regular forces now control all of Khartoum state in biggest victory of two-year war
Updated 59 min 56 sec ago
AFP
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s regular army has driven rival paramilitaries from Omdurman, part of the Sudanese capital, securing all of Khartoum state nearly two months after recapturing the capital’s center.
“Khartoum state is completely free of rebels,” military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said on Tuesday.
The army has been locked in a brutal conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023. In its biggest victory of the war, the army recaptured central Khartoum in March, forcing the paramilitaries to retreat to Salha, south of Omdurman, and Ombada to the west.
The army attacked on Monday to push the paramilitaries out of both, and there were explosions from the clashes across the city. Control of Khartoum state cements army control over central Sudan, pushing the paramilitaries back toward their stronghold in the vast western region of Darfur.
The conflict has killed up to 150,000 people, displaced 13 million and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the center, north and east while the Rapid Support Forces control Darfur and the south.
How President Trump’s Middle East tour signaled a bold reset in US foreign policy
From lifting sanctions on Syria to backing talks with Iran, Trump declared a readiness to end old conflicts, embracing transactional diplomacy
Trump’s Gulf-focused strategy prioritizes mutually beneficial partnerships over traditional loyalties, casting Israel as a costly, underperforming ally
Updated 20 May 2025
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: Standing ovations and scenes of jubilation are not normally witnessed at investment forums. But there was nothing normal about the speech President Donald Trump delivered at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh last week.
Speaking at the beginning of a four-day tour of the region, Trump’s geopolitical surprises came thick and fast.
“After discussing the situation in Syria with the (Saudi) crown prince,” he said, “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomes President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia. (AFP)
The last few words were almost drowned out by the wave of applause, which was followed by a standing ovation led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Although the announcement came as a big surprise to most, including seasoned analysts and even some in Trump’s inner circle, it was not entirely unexpected.
In December, for the first time in a decade, US officials had flown to Damascus, where they met with Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the commander of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, which just two weeks earlier had led the dramatic overthrow of the Bashar Assad regime after 14 years of civil war.
As a result of that meeting, after which the US delegation said it had found Al-Sharaa to be wholly “pragmatic,” the US removed the longstanding $10 million bounty on his head. A month later, Al-Sharaa was appointed president of Syria.
The day after last week’s investment forum in Riyadh, Trump sat down for a face-to-face meeting with Al-Sharaa that produced what might well prove to be one of the most historic photographs in the region’s recent history: the Saudi crown prince, flanked by Trump and Al-Sharaa, standing in front of the flags of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
The photograph sent a clear message: For the US, and for a region all too often subject to the whims of its largesse and military approbation, all bets were off.
The day before, Trump had more surprises for his delighted audience at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center.
President Donald Trump with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. (AP)
“I have never believed in having permanent enemies,” the president said, and “I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound, which obviously they are in the case of Iran.”
He praised local leadership for “transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past” and criticized “Western interventionists … giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs.”
In a message that will have echoed loudly in Kabul, Baghdad, and even Tehran, he added: “In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built — and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”
Responding to Trump’s announcements, Sir John Jenkins, a seasoned diplomat who served as British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria, and as consul-general in Jerusalem, told Arab News: “I think this could be a real turning point.
“Post-Arab Spring demographics — lots of young people wanting a better life and better governance but not wanting to get there through ideology or revolution — and Mohammed bin Salman, Trump, and Syria have all come together at a singular time.”
Trump’s speech last week in Riyadh, he said, “was extraordinary, an intellectually coherent argument, and he means it.
“If you can form a cohesive bloc of Sunni states — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the rest of the GCC, Jordan, Syria and Egypt — which all aim in different ways to increase prosperity and stability instead of the opposite, then you potentially have a bloc that can manage regional stability and contain Iran in a way we haven’t had for decades. And that gives the US the ability to pivot.”
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But a lot could still go wrong. “Iran, which is already trying hard to undermine Syria, will continue to play games,” said Jenkins.
“And then there’s Israel itself: Does it want strong and stable Sunni neighbors or not? It should do, but I’m not sure Bezalel Smotrich (Israel’s far-right finance minister, who this month vowed that Gaza would be ‘entirely destroyed’) and Itamar Ben-Gvir (the minister of national security who is pressing for Israel to seize and occupy Gaza) think so. That’s a headache for Israel’s Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu.
“But if you hook all this up to a possible US-Iran deal, which will give Iran incentives not to have sanctions come crashing back down, then there’s something there.”
For Al-Sharaa, even six months ago, the dramatic turnaround in his personal circumstances would have seemed fantastic, and as such is symptomatic of the tectonic upheavals presaged by Trump’s visit to the region.
Almost exactly 12 years ago, on May 16, 2013, the then-leader of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, judged responsible for “multiple suicide attacks throughout Syria” targeting the Assad regime, had been designated as a terrorist by the US Department of State.
Now, as the very public beneficiary of the praise and support of Trump and the Saudi crown prince, Al-Sharaa’s metamorphosis into the symbol of hope for the Syrian people is emblematic of America’s dramatic new approach to the region.
In Doha, the president chose the occasion of a visit to a US military base to make nice with Iran, a country whose negotiators have been quietly meeting in Oman with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, to discuss a nuclear deal.
Saudi Arabia signs deals worth more than $300 billion with US. (AFP)
“I want them to succeed,” said Trump, who in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from the original deal, fashioned by President Barack Obama and European allies, and reimposed economic sanctions. Now, he said in Doha last week, “I want them to end up being a great country.”
Iran, he added, “cannot have a nuclear weapon.” But, in a snub to Israel, which has reportedly not only sought US permission to attack Iranian enrichment facilities, but has even asked America to take part, he added: “We are not going to make any nuclear dust in Iran. I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this.”
In fact, Trump’s entire trip appeared to be designed as a snub to Israel, which did not feature on the itinerary.
A week ahead of the trip, Trump had announced a unilateral ceasefire deal with the Houthis in Yemen, who had sided with Hamas after Israel mounted its retaliatory war in Gaza in October 2023.
Under the deal, brokered by Oman and with no Israeli involvement, the US said it would halt its strikes in Yemen in exchange for the Houthis agreeing to stop targeting vessels in the Red Sea.
On May 12, the day before Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia, Hamas released Edan Alexander, the last surviving US citizen held hostage in Gaza, in a deal that came out of direct talks with no Israeli involvement.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Ahmad Al-Sharaa, president of Syria. (Reuters)
In a post on Truth Social, Trump celebrated “a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war.”
Trump, said Ahron Bregman, a former Israeli soldier and a senior teaching fellow in King’s College London’s Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, “threw Netanyahu, in fact Israel, under the bus.
“He totally surprised Netanyahu with a series of Middle Eastern diplomatic initiatives, which, at least from an Israeli perspective, hurt — indeed, humiliate — Israel,” he told Arab News.
“In the past, if one wished to get access to the White House, a good way to do so was to turn to Israel, asking them to open doors in Washington. Not any longer. Netanyahu, hurt and humiliated by Trump, seems to have lost his magic touch.
“Trump despises losers, and he probably regards Netanyahu as a loser, given the Gaza mess and Netanyahu’s failure to achieve Israel’s declared aims.”
It is, Bregman said, Trump’s famously transactional approach to politics that is shifting the dial so dramatically in the Middle East.
An aerial view shows a war devastated neighborhood in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. (AFP)
“Trump looks at international relations and diplomacy through financial lenses, as business enterprises. For Trump, money talks and the money is not to be found in Israel, which sucks $3 billion dollars a year from the US, but in the Gulf states.
“Trump is serious about America First, and Israel doesn’t serve this aim; the Gulf states do. For now, at least, the center of gravity has moved to the Gulf states, and the Israeli status in the Middle East has weakened dramatically.”
For Ibrahim Al-Marashi, associate professor at California State University, San Marcos, the events of the past week stand in sharp contrast to those during Trump’s first presidency.
“During the first Trump administration, World War Three almost broke out, with aircraft carriers from my native San Diego deployed continuously to the Gulf to deter Iran, the (Houthi) strike on Saudi Aramco, and the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad at the beginning of 2020,” he told Arab News.
“Five years later, the Trump administration seems to be repeating the Nixon-Kissinger realist doctrine: ‘America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.’ In that regard, his administration might forge relations with Iran as Nixon did with China.”
Kelly Petillo, program manager for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations, likewise views last week’s events as the beginning of “a new phase of US-Gulf relations.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian, center, and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami during the “National Day of Nuclear Technology” in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/AFP)
Among the remarkable developments is “Israel’s relative sidelining and the fact that Israel does not have the privileged relationship with Trump it thought it had,” she told Arab News. “The US agenda now is wider than unconditional support to Israel, and alignment with GCC partners is also key.
“Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE have clearly become of key strategic importance to the US, with new deals on the horizon and the promise of expanding these relations. The announcements of more commercial ties have been accompanied with political declarations too, which overall represented positive developments for the region.”
Ultimately, said Caroline Rose, a director at the New Lines Institute, “Trump’s visit to the GCC highlighted two of his foreign policy priorities in the Middle East.
“Firstly, he sought to obtain a series of transactional, bilateral cooperation agreements in sectors such as defense, investment and trade,” she told Arab News.
Trump “sought to obtain a series of transactional, bilateral cooperation agreements in sectors such as defense, investment and trade,” Caroline Rose told Arab News. (Reuters)
“The second objective was to use the trip as a mechanism that could change conditions for ongoing diplomatic negotiations directly with Iran, between Hamas and Israel, and even Ukraine and Russia.”
It was, of course, no accident that Trump chose the Middle East as the destination for the first formal overseas trip of his second presidency.
“The Trump administration sought to court Gulf states closely to signal to other partners in the region, such as Israel, as well as the EU, that it can develop alternative partnerships to achieve what it wants in peace negotiations.”
Although a strategy to move forward with specific peace negotiations was “notably absent during his trip,” it was clear that “this trip was designed to lay the groundwork for potential momentum and to change some of the power dynamics with traditional US partners abroad, sowing the seeds of goodwill that could alter negotiations in the Trump administration’s favor.”
Israel recalls senior Gaza hostage negotiators, leaves team in Doha
The indirect talks in Qatar began over the weekend, just as Israel’s new offensive was getting underway
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel said Tuesday that it was recalling its senior Gaza hostage negotiators from Doha “for consultation,” days after launching an intensified campaign in the Palestinian territory.
The indirect talks in Qatar, which has played a mediating role throughout the war, began over the weekend, just as Israel’s new offensive was getting underway.
“After about a week of intensive contacts in Doha, the senior negotiation team will return to Israel for consultation, while working levels will remain in Doha for the time being,” read a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, accusing Hamas of refusing to accept a deal.
A source close to Hamas, however, said on Tuesday that Israel’s delegation “has not held any real negotiations since last Sunday,” blaming “Netanyahu’s systematic policy of obstruction.”
Earlier in the day, Qatar had said Israel’s “irresponsible, aggressive behavior” with the expanded campaign had undermined the chances of a ceasefire.
Following Netanyahu’s announcement, the main group representing the families of hostages still being held in Gaza said it was “profoundly alarmed and devastated” at the decision to recall the negotiators, warning their loved ones’ lives were in danger.
Militants took 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
European nations increase pressure on Israel to stop broad Gaza offensive
Bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move
Sweden said it would press the EU to level sanctions against Israeli ministers
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP
GAZA CITY: European countries ramped up pressure on Israel to abandon its intensified campaign in Gaza and let more aid into the war-ravaged territory, where rescuers said fresh attacks killed dozens of people on Tuesday.
An AFP journalist saw some trucks entering the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza from the Israeli side on Tuesday, a day after the UN said it had been cleared to send aid for the first time since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, sparking severe shortages of food and medicine.
The dire humanitarian situation in the Strip has prompted an international outcry, with the European Union saying it would review its trade cooperation deal with Israel over alleged human rights abuses following a foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move, adding “the countries see that the situation in Gaza is untenable... and what we want is to unblock the humanitarian aid.”
Sweden said it would press the EU to level sanctions against Israeli ministers.
“Since we do not see a clear improvement for the civilians in Gaza, we need to raise the tone further,” said Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard.
And Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador and said it was imposing sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank in its toughest actions so far against Israel’s conduct of the war.
“Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in an impassioned speech to parliament.
Responding to Britain’s moves, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security.”
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said “93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred” to Gaza on Tuesday.
The spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres confirmed dozens of trucks were allowed in, but spoke of difficulties receiving the deliveries.
“Today, one of our teams waited several hours for the Israeli green light to... collect the nutrition supplies. Unfortunately, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse,” Stephane Dujarric said.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that the nine trucks cleared to enter on Monday were “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.”
He told the BBC on Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, replying to a Democrat’s comment during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, said he understood “that it’s not in sufficient amounts, but we were pleased to see that decision was made” to restart aid shipments.
The Israeli army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza’s rulers Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Strikes overnight and early Tuesday left “44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Bassal said 15 people were killed when a petrol station was hit near the Nuseirat refugee camp, and eight others were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City to the north.
The Israeli military told AFP it had “struck a Hamas terrorist who was operating from within a command and control center” inside the school compound. There was no comment on the other incidents.
At the bombarded petrol station, Nuseirat resident Mahmoud Al-Louh carried a cloth bag of body parts to a vehicle.
“They are civilians, children who were sleeping. What was their fault?” he told AFP.
In a statement on Tuesday, the military said it had carried out strikes on more than “100 terror targets” in Gaza over the past day.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “take control of all the territory of the Strip” with its new campaign.
Israel resumed operations across Gaza on March 18, bringing an end to a two-month ceasefire amid deadlock over how to proceed.
Negotiators from Israel and Hamas began a new round of indirect talks in Doha over the weekend, just as the intensified campaign was getting underway.
Qatar, which has been involved in mediation efforts throughout the war, said Tuesday that Israel’s “irresponsible, aggressive behavior” had undermined the chances of a ceasefire.
Hours later, Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of refusing to accept a deal, saying Israel was recalling its senior negotiators but leaving the “working levels” of its team in Doha.
A source close to Hamas alleged that Israel’s delegation “has not held any real negotiations since last Sunday,” blaming “Netanyahu’s systematic policy of obstruction.”
The Hamas attack in October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday at least 3,427 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,573.
Israeli politician slammed for saying country should not ‘kill babies for a hobby’
“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby,” Golan said
The chairman of Israel’s Democrats party is a former major general in the military
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israeli government and opposition leaders condemned on Tuesday a left-wing politician, Yair Golan, after he said in a radio interview that “a sane country... does not kill babies for a hobby.”
“Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state among the nations — like the South Africa of old — if it does not return to behaving like a sane country,” said Golan, chairman of Israel’s Democrats party.
“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations,” he told Israel’s Kan public radio.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Golan, a former major general in the military, of “wild incitement” against Israeli troops and of “echoing the most despicable anti-Semitic blood libels against the (Israeli army) and the State of Israel.”
Golan also drew condemnation from government critics, with opposition leader Yair Lapid saying in a post on X: “Our fighters are heroes and are defending our lives. The statement that they kill children as a hobby is incorrect and is a gift to our enemies.”
Education Minister Yoav Kisch, of Netanyahu’s party, called for an incitement investigation into Golan, whose party is a coalition of several left-wing factions.
“Golan is not a member of Knesset and does not have immunity. I expect the attorney general to immediately open an investigation against him for incitement,” Kisch said on X.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also took to X, saying Golan’s comments would “undoubtedly serve as fuel for the fire of global antisemitism — at a time when Israel is fighting for its survival against a coalition determined to destroy it.”
Military chief Eyal Zamir in a statement condemned remarks that cast doubt on the “morality” of the army’s actions and of its troops.
Responding to criticism, Golan said on X that he was trying to sound the alarm on the direction he believed Israel was headed.
The government’s war plans are “the realization of the fantasies of (Itamar) Ben Gvir and (Bezalel) Smotrich,” Golan said, referring to two far-right ministers.
“If we allow them to realize them, we will become a pariah state,” the left-wing politician said.
During a press conference, Golan said his criticism “was in no way directed at the army.”
“My criticism is aimed at the government, not the army, which is my home and in my heart,” he told journalists.
“A government that says we can abandon hostages and starve children is a government that speaks like a spokesperson for Hamas,” he added.
Golan, a vocal opponent of Netanyahu’s government and its policies, has been a controversial figure since a 2016 speech in which he appeared to draw parallels between Israeli society and the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s.
In November 2024, he accused Netanyahu of putting his own political interests before the country’s following a decision to dismiss defense minister Yoav Gallant.