Israel's Ben-Gvir calls for sacking defense minister amid settlement dispute

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to fire his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

His call came after the army seized equipment brought by illegal settlers in the past two days to establish a settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank, where a settler was killed last week.

“Defense Minister Gallant’s decision to evacuate and destroy buildings on the Gal Yosef farm where 14-year old Benjamin Achimeir was murdered…represents terrible obtuseness, moral confusion, security folly, and a violation of the dignity of the dead,” Ben-Gvir said on X.

Achimeir was found dead on Saturday after he went missing in the West Bank.

“Instead of establishing and approving more farms and expanding Jewish settlement, we surrender to the enemy,” the extremist minister said. “The time has come for the prime minister to consider replacing Minister Gallant.”

Ben-Gvir holds far-right views on the Palestinians and has called for their displacement. He has repeatedly joined illegal Israeli settlers in storming the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.

Estimates indicate about 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal under international law.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul