Yoav Gallant says he won’t run for office in next election, leaves future open

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday he will not run for office this year.

“I’ve decided not to run in the upcoming elections,” he told Channel 12. “I’m taking a break. As for the future — we’ll talk about that later. If an opportunity arises to have an impact, I’ll step up and answer the call.”

Gallant did not say explicitly why he wouldn’t run in the next election, which is scheduled to take place by late October. But his decision comes nearly 18 months after he was fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the middle of the war in Gaza, and as he has continued to harshly criticize the premier.

Gallant argued that he still has “good chances in Likud,” despite his ongoing rift with Netanyahu, the party’s powerful leader, but said that “right now it isn’t right for me.”

A former general, Gallant was defense minister on the day of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, and led the security establishment during the first year of Israel’s war in Gaza and conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.  He has taken responsibility for his part in failing to stop the shock attack.

He was removed from his post by Netanyahu in November 2024 as their relationship grew increasingly acrimonious.

The premier said he fired Gallant due to a lack of mutual trust. The former defense minister has said he was sacked over his insistence that ultra-Orthodox men be drafted to mandatory military service, that the government strike a hostage deal with Hamas, and that a state commission of inquiry be opened into the October 7 attack.

It was the second time the premier had moved to fire him. The two had clashed prior to October 7 when Gallant warned that the government’s controversial judicial overhaul agenda was creating a national rift that made the country less safe. In that instance, Netanyahu reversed the decision amid intense public protest.

Gallant resigned from the Knesset in January 2025, several months after Netanyahu fired him from his cabinet post for the second time. Likud has since launched proceedings to expel Gallant from its ranks.

Last month, the ex-minister called Netanyahu “a liar” and accused him of creating a false narrative surrounding the October 7 attack in order to evade responsibility.

Gallant served in the military for several decades before entering politics. He was former defense minister Ehud Barak’s first choice for IDF chief of staff in 2010, but his candidacy was clouded by various allegations in the media and ultimately scotched.

In November 2024, shortly after Gallant was fired as defense minister, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his and Netanyahu’s arrests for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war against Hamas in Gaza.

He and the premier, as well as many other lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and US leaders, reject the accusations. Israel says its military only targets combatants and takes pains to avoid civilian casualties, citing evacuation warnings and efforts to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid. It accuses Hamas of using Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.