Jerusalem:
Israel Katz, previously Israel’s overseas minister, has been appointed defence minister after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked Yoav Gallant from the put up.
Netanyahu stated he now not had belief in Gallant’s administration of Israel’s navy operations, which embrace an ongoing warfare in Gaza and Lebanon.
Beneath are some details about Katz:
* Born in 1955 within the Israeli coastal metropolis of Ashkelon, Katz was drafted into the navy in 1973 and served as a paratrooper, leaving the service in 1977. He has not served in any senior navy command place, in contrast to his predecessor Gallant, who had been a normal earlier than changing into defence minister in 2022.
* Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud celebration, has been a member of the Knesset (parliament) since 1998. Within the Knesset, he served on a number of committees together with these overlaying overseas affairs, defence and justice.
* He has held a number of ministerial posts previously twenty years, together with agriculture, transport, intelligence, finance and power portfolios. He was appointed overseas minister in 2019.
* As overseas minister, Katz declared Antonio Guterres persona non grata in October over what he stated was the U.N. secretary-general’s failure to “unequivocally” condemn Iran’s missile assault on Israel and for what he described as antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.
* Additionally in October, he ordered his ministry to start out authorized proceedings towards French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli corporations from taking part in an upcoming navy naval commerce present.
* Katz has been a low profile determine in Israeli-U.S. interactions throughout U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s 11 journeys to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. The highest U.S. diplomat has held just a few conferences with Katz, whereas Blinken recurrently met with Gallant.
* Katz studied as an undergraduate and graduate at Israel’s Hebrew College. He’s married with two kids.
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