Disagreements within the Israeli government and a conflict between the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening asked Defense Minister Israel Katz and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to ease tensions between them.

This request came after their differences reached a peak in the wake of the failures of October 7, 2023 attack.

Netanyahu made his request during two separate meetings with Zamir and Katz, after the latter refused to hold a trilateral meeting.

According to the Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom (Israel Today) Netanyahu is considering dismissing Katz from his position and appointing Gideon Sa’ar, who serves as foreign minister, in his place.

Commenting on the situation between Katz and Zamir, former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot described what is going on as “stupidity, and the prime minister must end it,” considering that Katz “decided to get into a confrontation with Zamir and the army”.

He said: “Israel is on four open fronts; the Iranians have restored their missile capability, Lebanon is an explosive front, there is a clash in Gaza, and the West Bank is explosive… This is when the defense minister decides to get into a confrontation with the chief of staff and the army”.

On Monday, Katz suspended appointments to senior positions in the military, the day after he dismissed senior officers without consulting him.

The dismissals came against the backdrop of failing to prevent and confront the October 7, 2023, attack, in a new dispute between Katz and Zamir.

Following the decision to freeze the appointments, Zamir issued a strongly worded statement accusing Katz of harming security.

Netanyahu then announced that Zamir and Katz had been summoned to his office for a clarification conversation after the dispute came to light.

But Katz told Netanyahu of his refusal to hold a trilateral meeting and of his desire to meet him in private.

Netanyahu held two meetings at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv with Zamir and Katz, as contrary to what Netanyahu had planned, the two meetings were held separately and took a long time.

According to the Israeli newspaper, “Netanyahu asked the defense minister and chief of staff: calm things down to keep the issue of the public confrontation out of the headlines”.

Katz’s refusal to meet Zamir meant that the dispute between the two men had reached its peak.

After a day of accusations and statements and unprecedented tension at the top of the security establishment, the prime minister (Tuesday) abandoned a joint meeting between the two and summoned each of them for a separate clarification conversation.

On Monday, Katz directed an extensive review of the findings of a committee from the army led by retired Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman tasked with investigating the failure to prevent the October 7, 2023 attack, and also suspended senior military appointments for 30 days.

“I appreciate the chief of staff, who knows full well that he is subordinate to the prime minister, the defense minister, and the government of Israel,” Katz said in a statement.

Zamir responded, in a strongly worded statement, that the decision to question a report written over a period of seven months by 12 generals and brigadier generals, approved by the army commander and presented to the minister personally, is surprising.

According to Zamir, the report was identified from the outset for the use of the chief of staff to assess the quality of investigations and draw lessons comprehensively within the military, not for political use.

Commenting on Katz’s decision to freeze the appointments, Zamir said that the suspension of the appointment’s harms security, the IDF’s capability and its readiness for the upcoming challenges.

On Monday evening, the Israeli official Broadcasting Corporation quoted sources close to Zamir as saying that he was aware that the public statement he published against Katz could have far-reaching consequences, including his dismissal.

Media reports also circulated in Israel on Tuesday about the possibility of Katz’s dismissal and the appointment of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in his place.

However, on Tuesday evening, the Israeli Wala website quoted an unnamed informed political source as saying that the system of relations (between government ministers) is stable and respectable.

“These posts are incorrect; they are a briefing by stakeholders… In our assessment, they come from military actors with interests… There’s no such thing”.

On Sunday, Zamir announced the dismissal of senior army commanders and reprimanded others over the October 7 failure.

Among them are former head of the military intelligence division “Aman” Aharon Haliva, former commander of the southern region, Yaron Finkelman, and former head of the operations division, Udi Basiuk.

These officers were previously dismissed from their leadership positions, but the new measures are punitive, and include the complete termination of their reserve service in the army.

According to Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Katz learned of Zamir’s decisions from the media.

The developments came about two weeks after Zamir received the comprehensive report prepared by Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman.

Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman is a former head of the army’s southern command in charge of Gaza, and was tasked with heading an army team to investigate the October 7 attack.

A number of senior commanders and officers who were on duty during the events of October 7 have resigned, declaring that they are partly responsible.

Among them were then-Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Southern District Commander Finkelman, Operations Division Chief Udi Basiuk, and Aman Allied chief.

Turgeman’s 140-page report identified the main reasons for the army’s failures on October 7.

These reasons included: “a gap between the army’s strategic and operational concepts towards the Gaza Strip and Hamas, which led to an intelligence failure to understand the reality and the threat, and to transmit information”.

Officials consider that what happened on October 7 represents the biggest Israeli intelligence and military failure, which has caused significant damage to Israel’s image and its military in the world.

Since Zamir’s appointment in March 2025, his disagreements with Katz over the October 7 investigations and a round of military appointments last August have been repeated without prior coordination with the minister.