Israel’s New Defense Minister: Netanyahu Loyalist, Settlers’ Friend 

A file photo taken on March 26, 2010 shows Israeli officer general Yoav Galant, chief of the south command, during a press conference near the border with the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
A file photo taken on March 26, 2010 shows Israeli officer general Yoav Galant, chief of the south command, during a press conference near the border with the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
TT

Israel’s New Defense Minister: Netanyahu Loyalist, Settlers’ Friend 

A file photo taken on March 26, 2010 shows Israeli officer general Yoav Galant, chief of the south command, during a press conference near the border with the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
A file photo taken on March 26, 2010 shows Israeli officer general Yoav Galant, chief of the south command, during a press conference near the border with the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

Israel's new defense minister Yoav Galant is a former general, a staunch ally of Benjamin Netanyahu and a vocal advocate of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. 

In the military, the 64-year-old oversaw Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and later commanded the "Operation Cast Lead" offensive against its Hamas rulers in 2008-2009.  

Since entering politics in 2015, he has served as minister for education, housing and immigration -- and has been a prominent backer of Israel's settlements, regarded as illegal under international law, that are today home to some 475,000 settlers. 

Some observers fear a radical change in policy on the occupied West Bank under Netanyahu's new government. 

Shlomo Neeman, who heads the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, welcomed Galant ahead of his appointment on Thursday. 

"Yoav Galant is a man who has done a lot for the settlement of Judea and Samaria," he said, using the Jewish biblical terms for the West Bank. 

Ahead of his nomination, Galant's predecessor Benny Gantz spoke with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, stressing "the important ties forged between the Israeli defense establishment and political echelon and the Palestinian Authority".  

Galant, born in the Mediterranean port of Jaffa in 1958 to Polish Holocaust survivors, was a career soldier.  

He was an officer in the elite marine unite known as Flotilla-13 when it carried out an operation against the Palestinian Fatah movement in Lebanon in 1978.  

The unit killed around 20 Palestinian gunmen, etching the operation into the Israeli military's history books.  

Top general  

Between 1982 and 1984, Galant took a break from the army to become a lumberjack in Alaska.  

Galant reached the rank of general in 2002, serving as former prime minister Ariel Sharon's military attaché.  

Galant would later rise to become commander of the southern military command, overseeing Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the evacuation of 8,000 settlers from the Palestinian enclave. 

He then commanded Israel's "Operation Cast Lead", a 22-day operation in Gaza that killed 1,440 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.  

A United Nations report accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during that conflict.  

Nominated as the army's chief of staff in 2010, Galant was mired in scandal over the appropriation of public land to build his house.  

An investigative report led to a petition in the supreme court which did not result in criminal charges, but posed potential legal problems to his appointment.  

Instead, Benny Gantz, whom Galant now succeeds at the defense ministry, was selected.  

After leaving the army, he became director of a drilling company owned by Franco-Israeli tycoon Beny Steinmetz, but resigned in 2014 to enter politics.  

In 2015, Galant served as housing minister as part of the center-right Kulanu party, though he later joined Netanyahu's right-wing Likud in 2019.  

Under previous Netanyahu governments, Galant served as both immigration and education minister between 2019 and 2021. 



Syrians Stuck in Camps After Finding Homes Destroyed

People walk in the camp of Atme for displaced people, on the outskirts of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on February 5, 2025, nearly two months after the opposition toppled Syrian President Bashal al-Assad. (AFP)
People walk in the camp of Atme for displaced people, on the outskirts of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on February 5, 2025, nearly two months after the opposition toppled Syrian President Bashal al-Assad. (AFP)
TT

Syrians Stuck in Camps After Finding Homes Destroyed

People walk in the camp of Atme for displaced people, on the outskirts of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on February 5, 2025, nearly two months after the opposition toppled Syrian President Bashal al-Assad. (AFP)
People walk in the camp of Atme for displaced people, on the outskirts of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on February 5, 2025, nearly two months after the opposition toppled Syrian President Bashal al-Assad. (AFP)

Mehdi al-Shayesh thought he would quickly resettle in his central Syrian home town after Bashar al-Assad was ousted, but like many others stuck in camps, he found his home uninhabitable.

"We were unbelievably happy when the regime fell," the 40-year-old said from his small, concrete-block house in Atme displacement camp, one of the largest and most crowded in the Idlib area in the northwest.

But "when we reached our village" in Hama province "we were disappointed", said the father of four, who has been displaced since 2012.

"Our home used to be like a small paradise... but it was hit by bombing." Now, after years of abandonment, it "is no longer habitable", he told AFP.

Assad's December 8 ouster sparked the hope of return to millions of displaced across Syria and refugees abroad. However, many now face the reality of finding their homes and basic infrastructure badly damaged or destroyed.

Syria's transitional authorities are counting on international support to rebuild the country after almost 14 years of devastating war.

Shayesh said he was happy to see relatives in formerly government-held areas after so many years, but he cannot afford to repair his home so has returned to the northwest.

In the icy winter weather, smoke rises from fuel heaters in the sprawling camp near the border with Türkiye. It is home to tens of thousands of people living in close quarters in what were supposed to be temporary structures.

Shayesh expressed the hope that reconstruction efforts would take into account that families may have changed significantly during years of displacement.

"If we go back to the village now... there will be no home for my five brothers" who are now all married, "and no land to build on", he said, as rain poured outside.

"Just as we held out hope that the regime would fall -- and thank God, it did -- we hope that supportive countries will help people to rebuild and return," he added.

Before Assad's overthrow, more than five million people were estimated to live in opposition-held areas in the northwestern Idlib and Aleppo provinces, most of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria.

David Carden, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said that "over 71,000 people have departed camps in northwest Syria over the past two months".

"But that's a small fraction compared to the two million who remain and will continue to need life-saving aid," he told AFP.

"Many camp residents are unable to return as their homes are destroyed or lack electricity, running water or other basic services. Many are also afraid of getting caught in minefields left from former front lines," he added.

Mariam Aanbari, 30, who has lived in the Atme camp for seven years, said: "We all want to return to our homes, but there are no homes to return to.

"Our homes have been razed to the ground," added the mother of three who was displaced from Hama province.

Aanbari said her husband's daily income was just enough to buy bread and water.

"It was difficult with Bashar al-Assad and it's difficult" now, she told AFP, her six-month-old asleep beside her as she washed dishes in freezing water.

'We will return'

Most people in the camp depend on humanitarian aid in a country where the economy has been battered by the war and a majority of the population lives in poverty.

"I hope people will help us, for the little ones' sakes," Aanbari said.

"I hope they will save people from this situation -- that someone will come and rebuild our home and we can go back there in safety."

Motorbikes zip between homes and children play in the cold in the camp where Sabah al-Jaser, 52, and her husband Mohammed have a small corner shop.

"We were happy because the regime fell. And we're sad because we went back and our homes have been destroyed," said Jaser, who was displaced from elsewhere in Idlib province.

"It's heartbreaking... how things were and how they have become," said the mother of four, wearing a black abaya.

Still, she said she hoped to go back at the end of this school year.

"We used to dream of returning to our village," she said, emphasizing that the camp was not their home.

"Thank God, we will return," she said determinedly.

"We will pitch a tent."