JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would leave Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in place given an escalating security crisis, reversing a decision to fire the minister that triggered protests and raised alarm abroad.
He said the two had resolved their disagreement over Gallant’s public call last month for a halt to the government’s bitterly divisive judicial overhaul plan, which Gallant said had become a threat to Israel’s security.
Last week Netanyahu announced he would delay the dismissal.
“I’ve decided to put our differences behind us,” Netanyahu said at a Monday press conference. He said the two had worked closely together throughout the last two weeks.
An Italian tourist was killed and five people were wounded in a car ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday hours after two Israeli sisters and their mother were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank.
The attacks, after a night of cross-border strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, added to heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions following Israeli police raids in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque this week.
The tensions threatened to widen when Israel responded to a barrage of rockets by hitting targets linked to Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon, but the fighting entered a lull on Friday.
A Sunday opinion poll, from Israel’s Channel 13 News, showed Netanyahu’s Likud party would lose more than a third of its seats if an election were held now, and Netanyahu would fail to gain a majority with his hard-right coalition partners.
“I’m not disturbed by the poll,” Netanyahu told reporters.
The prime minister said relations with the United States, which appeared strained over the government’s planned judicial overhaul, remained “tight” and the two countries enjoyed security and intelligence cooperation.
Netanyahu’s government paused legislation on the overhaul to allow for compromise discussions with opposition parties following weeks of nationwide protests.
Israeli PM reverses course on sacking defence minister
https://arab.news/nvseb
Israeli PM reverses course on sacking defence minister
- He said the two had resolved their disagreement over Gallant’s public call last month for a halt to the government’s bitterly divisive judicial overhaul plan
Saudi scientific organization celebrates 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi
- King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology honors him with a reception at its headquarters in Riyadh
- Yaghi, the first Saudi recipient of a Nobel Prize, shared the Nobel Prize with 2 other scientists for their pioneering work in molecular chemistry
LONDON: King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh honored Omar Yaghi, the Saudi scientist and recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with a reception at its headquarters in Riyadh on Thursday.
Yaghi is the first Saudi scientist awarded a Nobel Prize. He received it in December, alongside two other scientists, for their pioneering work in the field of molecular chemistry, and for contributions to energy, the environment and advanced materials.
He is also supervisor of the Center of Excellence for Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Applications, a collaboration between KACST and the University of California, Berkeley.
Munir Eldesouki, the president of KACST, said that the Kingdom is keen to recognize its scientific talents, in keeping with Saudi Vision 2030 and its goals relating to the fostering of scientific research.
Yaghi said he appreciated the support he had received from Saudi leaders during his career, and praised them for creating an enabling environment in which scientists are able to pursue world-class research, development and innovation.
Investment in national talent has created a research ecosystem that positions Saudi Arabia among the leading scientific nations, he added.
Thursday’s event, attended by the organization’s staff and students, also honored the winning teams from the recent “GenAI for Materials Discovery Hackathon,” which KACST organized in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, and Academy 32, a nonprofit Saudi organization dedicated to research, development and innovation.
The celebration concluded with an interactive discussion session during which Yaghi talked with students and researchers, reflected on key milestones in his scientific journey, and shared insights into the factors that helped shape his career, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
