Israel’s Netanyahu accuses DM of leaking information from closed security meetings

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Defence Minister Yoav Gallant of leaking information from closed security meetings, according to reports by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation Kan 11 yesterday.

Netanyahu publicly accused Gallant in the presence of ministers and leaders of the state security cabinet, without explicitly naming him, at the end of one of its recent meetings, the channel said.

The report stated that Netanyahu said at the end of one of the cabinet meetings: “Every time I sit in small meetings with the defence minister, the head of the Mossad, and the head of the Shin Bet – everything is leaked. I know that it’s not the head of the Mossad and not the head of the Shin Bet, so who could it be?”

Neither Gallant, nor senior officials in the security services participated in the meeting in person.

It stated that a number of Likud ministers who participated in the meeting mocked Gallant when they thought he was no longer on the agenda and assured Netanyahu that they supported his position in confronting the defence minister.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Israeli security services expressed, in closed talks, their fear that there would be leaks from the cabinet meetings, as well as the war cabinet.

Tensions between Netanyahu and Gallant have come to the fore during Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza, with the prime minister announcing that a date had been set for the ground invasion of Rafah, claims the defence later debunked soon after.

Read: Israel’s Netanyahu pleads with France to calm front with Lebanon