Yoav Gallant sacking removes thorn in Netanyahu’s side

Yoav Gallant knew he was living on borrowed time as Israel’s Defence Minister after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first attempt to sack him last year failed in the face of some of the biggest protests ever seen in Israel.

Netanyahu backed down that time, but relations between the two have never recovered and they wrangled constantly as the war in Gaza has ground on into its second year.

There have been regular rumours that he was on the way out but he refused to go, remaining...