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Israel’s defence minister triggered a political uproar on Monday after declaring on live television that he intended to sack the general responsible for the occupied West Bank, reopening a rift between the military and far-right government ahead of national elections.
Israel Katz told the pro-government Channel 14 on Sunday night that Avi Bluth would be replaced for advocating to extend the detention of an extremist Jewish settler who is alleged to have violently attacked and sexually assaulted Palestinians earlier this year.
The settler had been held in administrative detention — a measure used to imprison suspects without full due process — in recent weeks until Katz chose not to renew it. Bluth and the Israel Defense Forces’ legal authorities appealed the defence minister’s move.
Katz said the appeal was “the wrong step” and announced the general’s replacement live on air. “I also want . . . an IDF that strives for decisive victory, strikes its enemies and protects the settlers,” Katz said during the telecast.
The announcement sparked the latest public dispute between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the military high command, who have repeatedly clashed in the years since Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack and Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The prime minister and his allies have avoided taking responsibility for the security failure and sought to blame it on the military and intelligence services. There have also been repeated disagreements over military strategy, personnel appointments and issues including the conscription of ultra-Orthodox into the army.
Israeli opposition politicians attacked Katz on Monday, accusing him of undermining the military chain of command and pandering to hardline pro-settler voters ahead of October’s election.
IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir pushed back against Katz’s announcement, saying he would not make the change in West Bank command “during these sensitive times” and indicated that it ran against “required protocols.”
Katz on Monday appeared to walk back his statement, saying that the change in command would occur during the “next appointments cycle” for senior IDF posts, and arguing that the matter had already been agreed with Zamir several months ago. Zamir indicated no appointments would be made until next year, according to Israeli media reports.
“Avi Bluth has not been dismissed,” Katz said on Monday evening, adding that the general was “fulfilling his duties well and that there is no disagreement between them.”
Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank has expanded exponentially under the current Netanyahu government, considered the most far-right in the country’s history, while settler violence against Palestinians has spiralled.
Civil society activists and former senior security officials allege that, under Bluth, Israeli forces have not done nearly enough to halt the rising wave of attacks.
Even some more mainstream settler leaders slammed Katz for his comments against Bluth, defending the general’s record against Palestinian militancy and support for the settler movement. Many commentators pointed out that Bluth himself grew up in a West Bank settlement.
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main opposition challenger ahead of the elections, called Katz’s “spectacle . . . an unprecedented low in relations between the civilian and military echelons”.
It was, Eisenkot added, “an unworthy and unlawful act” by the defence minister. He accused Katz of attempting to curry favour among far-right voters ahead of primaries for Netanyahu’s Likud party later this month.
The Yesha Council, the umbrella group for the settler movement, expressed its support for Bluth, saying in a statement that the general’s “military leadership in the field has led to great successes in the war on terror, alongside close and respectful work with the settlements”.
Under Katz and Bluth’s direction, the IDF launched in early 2025 a major offensive against Palestinian militants in three northern West Bank refugee camps, displacing tens of thousands of residents and causing major destruction in the area.
Katz over the past week has threatened to launch a similar offensive into another, as yet unnamed, refugee camp, in reprisal for a deadly incident in the Palestinian village of Tell late last month in which two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed.
Katz on Monday appeared to add fuel to the accusation that his comments were politically motivated, releasing on his official channels a video clip “unveiling” his campaign for the Likud party primaries.
“Finally a rightwing defence minister,” a rock singer bellowed out, juxtaposed over clips of falling bombs across the Middle East.
