IDF chief to update Gantz on regional ‘security challenges’

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi will meet later today to discuss “security challenges and regional developments,” according to a statement from the army.

The statement says that Gantz, who is Kohavi’s predecessor, requested the meeting, which was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also defense minister.

The meeting comes a week after Turkey launched a military operation in northeast Syria after US President Donald Trump withdrew American troops from Kurdish areas. The US pullback from northeastern Syria, essentially abandoning its Kurdish allies, has sparked deep concern in Israel, where there are growing fears that Iran could be emboldened by what appears to be an increasingly hands-off American policy in the region.