Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu in U-turn on dismissal of defence minister

Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has rescinded the decision to fire defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Mr Galant – a senior member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party – was dismissed two weeks ago after he called for the freezing of the right-wing government’s controversial plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system and limit the powers of the Supreme Court.

The move led to hundreds of thousands of protesters pouring on to Israel’s streets and the Histadrut trade union federation declaring a general strike, plunging the country into chaos.

Mr Netanyahu announced the U-turn in a news conference on Monday night.

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“We are standing together and working together around the clock. Gallant will stay in his position and continue to work for the protection of Israeli citizens,” he said. “We will find all the terrorists and make them pay the price.”

Mr Netanyahu also said that Israel’s opposition and the movement against his government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary are responsible for the current military escalation between Israel and its neighbours.

Earlier on Monday, Lucy (Leah) Dee, the mother of the two British-Israeli sisters who were shot and killed in a West Bank shooting on Friday, died from her injuries at a Jerusalem hospital.

Rina (16) and Maia (20) from the British family which emigrated to Israel died at the scene when the car they were travelling in came under fire in the Jordan Valley. The two sisters were buried on Sunday in an emotional funeral attended by thousands at their home settlement of Efrat, near Bethlehem.

Lucy (48) was evacuated by helicopter to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in a critical condition but after spinal surgery was pronounced dead on Monday afternoon. “We are sorry that despite our relentless efforts, and due to her extensive injuries, we had to declare her death,” a hospital statement said. “Her organs were donated by her family to assist others in need.”

Video footage showed a gunman, presumed to be a Palestinian, opening fire at the family vehicle from a car that fled the scene. The car was later discovered in the West Bank city of Nablus and the Israeli security forces are continuing a massive search for the perpetrators.

“How much we hoped, how much we prayed, but tragically Leah has died of her injuries,” wrote President Yitzhak Herzog. “I send my deepest condolences to the Dee family and pray that they will know no more sorrow. May her memory be a blessing.”

Meanwhile, more than 15,000 settlers and right-wing activists marched to the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar, demanding that the government turn the site into a new settlement.

Seven ministers and 20 members of the Knesset from Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition participated in the march.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionist party who is also in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, told the crowd that more settlements will be established.

Dozens of Palestinians in the nearby village of Beita protested against the march. The villagers are engaged in an ongoing legal battle against the creation of a new settlement, claiming that Evyatar sits on land Israel expropriated decades ago from their village.