Israel Katz

Israel Katz, Born 1955 in Gedera, is a Likud career politician who served as Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Finance Minister before Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him Defence Minister in November 2024, replacing Yoav Gallant. He has no prior military command experience, making him an unusual figure to lead Israeli forces during the most intensive combat operations since 1948.

Since early 2026, Katz has been the public architect of Israel's most expansive war objectives. Within hours of Mojtaba Khamenei's appointment as Supreme Leader, he declared Khamenei a certain assassination target . He and Benjamin Netanyahu co-authorised standing kill orders on senior Iranian figures without per-operation cabinet approval . He ordered demolition of Lebanese border villages invoking the Gaza model , and declared intent to permanently hold all territory south of the Litani River .

On 6 April 2026, Katz confirmed combined strikes on South Pars/Asaluyeh (6 April) and Mahshahr (5 April) had taken 85 per cent of Iran's petrochemical export capacity offline, calling the campaign "a severe economic blow costing tens of billions of dollars" . On 7 May — the first IDF airstrike on Beirut since the Trump Ceasefire of 16 April — Israel killed Radwan Force commander Ahmed Ali Balout in Dahiyeh, triggering an Iranian Foreign Ministry warning that continued strikes on Lebanon could collapse Iran's own ceasefire with Israel . Katz's public framing of that strike was that Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons were applying pressure on Israel out of concern Israel would crush Hezbollah entirely. Assassination pre-authorisation, annexation declarations, and village demolitions set precedents that outlast the current conflict and bind Israeli and international law long after the fighting ends.