Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Gideon Saar, previously a minister without portfolio, as the new foreign minister.
His predecessor, Israel Katz, is replacing Yoav Gallant, dropped by Netanyahu who said their trust was broken.
Katz as the new defence minister was an unexpected choice, with many seeing Saar as the most likely candidate for the job. He is widely seen as Netanyahu’s rival within the right-wing conservative governing party Likud.
In 2019, he ran against Netanyahu in internal elections for the party leadership, but lost. He left Likud the following year and founded his own party. In the last government under Netanyahu opponents Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Saar was justice minister.
