We will not allow Iran to harm us, says Israeli Defence Minister
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant spoke out against Iranian interference in Israel’s affairs during his visit to troops in the occupied West Bank.
“We will not allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to harm us,” said Mr Gallant, who Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to sack last week.
“We have not allowed it in the past, we won’t allow it now, or in the future.”
Mr Gallant visited troops serving in an army brigade in the West Bank on Sunday.
During his visit, he was told about an investigation into a
Palestinian motorist, who was shot by the Israeli military on Saturday, after he drove his car into a group of soldiers in the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu announced Mr Gallant’s dismissal a week ago after he spoke out against the pace of the government’s judicial reforms.
The plan has set off street protests in Israel and led to international condemnation.
Mr Gallant has yet to receive a formal dismissal letter from the Prime Minister.
Mr Netanyahu’s religiousnationalist coalition government has said it will pause the judicial reforms. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported yesterday that a Palestinian was killed and another was critically wounded by Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The two were seriously injured during clashes with the forces during the raid, the Ministry of Health told Wafa.
Ahmed Jibril, director of ambulance and emergency at the Red Crescent in Nablus, said one of the injured was taken to Rafidia Surgical Hospital and was later declared dead.
Medical relief teams transferred the other to Nablus Speciality Hospital. Mr Jibril said the troops
attacked the hospital with tear gas bombs. Israeli forces said they arrested two people during the raids, which took place across the city. The death toll in Nablus has risen to 93, including 17 children and a woman, since January.
Meanwhile, Israel attacked sites in Syria’s Homs province by air on Sunday, wounding five soldiers, Syrian state media reported.
Hours later, the Israeli military said it shot down an “aircraft” that crossed from Syria into Israeli airspace.
In Iran, state media reported that an Iranian adviser who was wounded in an Israeli strike on Friday died of his wounds.
Since the start of Syria’s conflict in March 2011, Iran has been a main supporter of President Bashar Al Assad’s government. Sunday’s attack by Israel was the ninth in Syria since the beginning of the year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitor.
Palestinian-Israeli tensions are high after months of violence in parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Tensions are also simmering with Syria, Iran and with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
“The Iranians are extending their outreach to [the West Bank] and Gaza, and are attempting to entrench themselves in Syria and Lebanon,” said Mr Gallant.