Report: Gallant resigned in order to prevent Likud from ousting him from party

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant may have resigned from the Knesset this evening to preempt his own Likud party from declaring him a renegade and ousting him from the party, preventing him from running on its list in the future, Hebrew media reports.

During the announcement of his resignation this evening, Gallant stressed his decades-long ties to Likud and said that he was leaving the Knesset but not the party. According to Ynet, coalition whip Ofir Katz had begun putting together his case for Gallant’s dismissal.

In a post on X, Likud MK Avichay Buaron declares that Gallant knew that if he did not resign on Wednesday, “the Likud faction would declare him retired.”

Since being fired, Gallant’s conduct has sent the message: “I am not committed to the Likud and the coalition. Even when it means getting the prime minister out of his sickbed,” Buaron writes, adding that “Gallant should leave both the Knesset and the Likud.”

Buaron claims that he had “received broad support” for efforts to oust Gallant in light of his decision to skip Tuesday evening’s plenum session in the Knesset, during which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left his sickbed in a Jerusalem hospital only days after undergoing surgery in order to vote.

A Likud spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.