37 Facts About Yoav Gallant

Yoav Gallant is an Israeli politician and former military officer who served as minister of defense between 2022 and 2024.

Yoav Gallant subsequently resigned from the Knesset on 5 January 2025.

Yoav Gallant was born on 8 November 1958 in Jaffa to Polish Jewish immigrants.

Yoav Gallant's mother, Fruma, was a Holocaust survivor who had been on the SS Exodus as a child.

Yoav Gallant participated in Operation Yoav, during which he was the first soldier to break into the fort at Iraq Suwaydan.

Yoav Gallant received a BA in Business and Finance Management from the University of Haifa.

Yoav Gallant is married to Claudine, a retired IDF Lieutenant Colonel.

In 2011, Yoav Gallant was tapped to succeed Gabi Ashkenazi as the Chief of General Staff by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Yoav Gallant began his military career in 1977 as a naval commando in Shayetet 13.

Yoav Gallant then returned to the navy and served on a missile boat and again in Shayetet 13.

In 1992, Yoav Gallant was earmarked by then-navy commander Ami Ayalon for the command of Shayetet 13, a position he was meant to take up in 1994.

Yoav Gallant preferred not to study during the two remaining years, and instead moved into the ground forces and in 1993 took up command of the Menashe Territorial Brigade of the Judea and Samaria Division.

Yoav Gallant commanded the reserve 340th Armored Division, and in 2001 became the chief of staff of the GOC Army Headquarters.

Yoav Gallant attained the rank of a major general when he became the military secretary of the prime minister in 2002.

In 2005, Yoav Gallant was appointed as commander of the Southern Command.

Yoav Gallant commanded the operation and his role in the field and in what was at that time considered the success of the operation gained praise and helped him in the race to chief of staff.

Yoav Gallant's view was ignored as the military prosecutor general opened an investigation of the incident which was highlighted by the Goldstone Report as a "possible serious breach of international law".

Yoav Gallant's appointment followed a controversy, where a forged document was leaked to Israel's Channel 2 purporting to detail plans by Yoav Gallant to smear rival candidate Benny Gantz.

The cabinet approved Barak's proposal, according to which Yoav Gallant would serve for three years, giving the defense minister power to grant a fourth.

In January 2015 Yoav Gallant joined the new Kulanu party led by Moshe Kahlon.

Yoav Gallant was placed second on the party's list for the 2015 elections, and was elected to the Knesset as the party won ten seats.

Yoav Gallant was later appointed Minister of Construction in the new government.

On 31 December 2018, Yoav Gallant quit his post as Housing and Construction Minister to join Likud.

Yoav Gallant resigned from the Knesset and was replaced by the next candidate on the Kulanu list, Fentahun Seyoum on 2 January 2019.

On 17 January 2021, reacting to a planned speech by the director-general of B'Tselem Hagai El-Ad at the Hebrew Reali School, Yoav Gallant, serving as the minister of education, published a directive to the Education Ministry to forbid all organizations whose causes contradict the Ministry's vision of the country as democratic, Jewish and Zionist, from entering schools.

Specifically, Yoav Gallant wrote that any organization which cites Israel as an "apartheid state", shall be forbidden from entering education centers in Israel.

In 2021, as minister of education, Yoav Gallant opposed Weizmann Institute professor Oded Goldreich receiving the Israel Prize in mathematics, due to him co-signing a 2019 letter that called for the Bundestag not to pass legislation defining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as anti-Semitic.

On 25 March 2023, Yoav Gallant spoke out against his own government in support of the protests against the government's proposed judicial reforms.

On 8 August 2023, Yoav Gallant warned that Israel would not hesitate to attack Hezbollah and "return Lebanon to the Stone Age" if Israel was attacked.

On 13 October 2023, Yoav Gallant met with US secretary of defense Lloyd Austin.

In November 2023, Yoav Gallant warned that Beirut could meet the same fate as Gaza.

On 15 May 2024, during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Yoav Gallant convened a press conference in which he criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu for rejecting dealing with the question of "the day after" in the Gaza Strip.

Just before the blasts, Yoav Gallant told the US defense secretary Lloyd Austin that an operation was planned in Lebanon.

On 5 November 2024, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he had dismissed Yoav Gallant and sought to have Israel Katz replace him.

Yoav Gallant announced his intention to resign from the Knesset on 1 January 2025 in opposition to the government's proposed draft law.

In February 2025, Yoav Gallant admitted that he issued the Hannibal Directive during the 7 October attacks.

Yoav Gallant insisted on launching a military offensive in Gaza despite warnings that such an attack could endanger the Israeli hostages held there.