Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met separately on Tuesday with Defense Minister Israel Katz and with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in an effort to de-escalate a public spat between the two top security officials.
Katz and Zamir traded barbs on Monday after the former ordered a re-investigation of the military’s external review of its earlier internal probes into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
Zamir also accused Katz of political interference and harming the military’s preparedness by freezing senior promotions — which the defense minister must approve — for 30 days.
While reports on Monday said Netanyahu had intended to summon both Zamir and Katz for a meeting, he eventually opted to first meet Katz alone, and then sit down alone with Zamir.
Tuesday’s reports said that a three-way meeting was unlikely to be held over the matter, with some speculating that Katz may have refused to attend such a meeting.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Some outlets reported that in the meetings, Netanyahu demanded that Katz and Zamir lower the public flames and get their spat off national news headlines. In one unsourced report, the Israel Hayom daily said Netanyahu is considering replacing Katz with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar
“It is best not to listen to briefings to journalists by interested parties,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Tuesday. “The prime minister is determined to solve the issues, and will solve them in the best way possible.”
Katz has been fighting a months-long, escalating campaign against Zamir over senior IDF appointments by selectively promoting officers and denying the appointments of others with whom he apparently does not see eye to eye. Some military officials have warned that Katz is attempting to politicize the army by taking control of senior appointments.
In his statement on Monday, Zamir argued that the report prepared by Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman and other former senior officers regarding October 7 “was defined from the outset for the chief of staff’s use, to examine the quality of investigations and integrative lessons-learned processes in the IDF, and not for political use.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits IDF troops in Syria, joined by Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet Director David Zini, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yehiel Leiter, and other senior IDF officers, November 19, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
He defended the report and called Katz’s decision to re-investigate its findings “puzzling.” He said Turgeman’s team “heard more than hundreds of testimonies, conducted in-depth examinations, and carried out a professional process.”
“An alternative 30-day review by the defense establishment comptroller, with no disrespect to him, is irrelevant,” Zamir said, after Katz announced that Defense Establishment Comptroller Brig. Gen. (res.) Yair Volansky would submit a review of Turgeman’s report within a month.
“The IDF is the only body in the country that thoroughly investigated its own failures and took responsibility for them,” Zamir continued, in an apparent jab at political leaders, including Netanyahu, who have largely refused to take responsibility for the failures surrounding October 7.
“If any further review is required to complete the picture, it must take the form of an external, objective and independent committee” that will look into topics including “the interface between the military and political echelons,” he said.
The chief of staff said Katz’s decision to freeze promotions in the IDF for 30 days “harms the IDF’s capability and its readiness process for upcoming challenges.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (left) and Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman (right) present Defense Minister Israel Katz (center) with the findings made by a panel of former senior officers tasked with evaluating the military’s probes into the October 7 attack, on November 9, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)
Katz had announced his decision a day after Zamir dismissed several senior officers and censured others for their roles in the October 7 failures, based on Turgeman’s probe, which found the IDF’s own investigations into its failures inadequate or unacceptable.
“I appreciate the chief of staff, who knows well that he is subordinate to the prime minister, the defense minister and the government of Israel,” Katz said in a statement on Monday responding to Zamir. “I do not intend to argue through the media.”
“The defense establishment comptroller will submit his conclusions within 30 days, and only afterward will I formulate my decisions on the appointments, as required by my role and authority,” Katz added.
Since he became defense minister in late 2024, Katz has canceled the appointments of several senior officers chosen by Zamir and his predecessor, Herzi Halevi. Some of the promotion hold-ups were met with puzzlement in the military.
Katz also delayed the promotion of dozens of colonels and brigadier generals for weeks, claiming that they had been made by Zamir without consultation. He also has yet to rule on the appointments for three major general roles, with the officers currently staffing them nearing the end of their tenures.
Typically, senior appointments, aside from those of top generals, are brought to the defense minister for approval following internal IDF meetings on the matter. Katz has falsely claimed that, by law, he is responsible for senior promotions in the military.
Katz publicly slammed the military chief in August for announcing a list of senior appointments, claiming Zamir had done so without consulting him. At the end of the month, the two announced that they had reached an understanding on the army’s appointment process, though the feud resurfaced this week.
Sam Sokol and Ariela Karmel contributed to this report.
You appreciate our journalism
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel