Israeli Channel 12 revealed a dispute that broke out between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, against the backdrop of Netanyahu preventing the heads of the Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, and the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, from attending a war cabinet session.
The channel explained that Gallant told Netanyahu that preventing such meetings would harm Israel’s security, while Netanyahu and Gallant denied the existence of such differences, and stressed that they were working together to achieve victory in the war.
In a related development, the Israeli Walla website reported that the meeting of the Israeli mini-ministerial council ended after sharp disagreements between the Chief of Staff and a number of ministers due to the formation of a team to investigate the events of October 7, and this is what prompted Netanyahu to break up the meeting that was scheduled to discuss the post- The war on Gaza.
The website added that the session witnessed sharp arguments and screaming, which prompted Netanyahu to stop it, noting that ministers in the mini-council attacked Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy because of the appointment of Shaul Mofaz, who supervised the implementation of the unilateral withdrawal plan from Gaza in 2005, as head of the investigation team.
Nearly 3 months after the events, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Halevy decided to form a security team to begin conducting an investigation into the failures of the October 7 events in their security, military, and intelligence aspects.
Investigation members
The investigation team includes a number of former security officials, including the Minister of Security and former Army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, who will head the team, in addition to the former head of the Military Intelligence Division, Ze’evi Farkash, and the former commander of the Southern Army Command, Sami Turgeman, and each of the three will undertake investigations in his field.
Israeli media said that the investigations will also include the conduct of military operations during the war on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Minister of Defense revealed Israel’s plans for the next phase of its war on Gaza, as he said that it intends to follow a new, more targeted approach in the northern part of the Strip and to continue pursuing the leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the south.
Gallant said, in a statement, that after the war, “Hamas” will not return to control Gaza, which “is scheduled to be administered by Palestinian bodies as long as there is no threat to Israel,” as he put it. He also added that Israel will maintain freedom in operations, but there will be no presence. An Israeli civilian, he said.
Israeli reports stated that Washington asked Israel to begin implementing the third phase this week, while the occupation army announced during the past two days a reduction in the number of its forces in Gaza, but did not officially approve the start of implementing this phase.
According to sources, the third stage requires the Israeli army to move from the stage of intensive bombing to targeted bombing and the withdrawal of forces from inside Gaza to the border between the two sides (the Gaza envelope areas).