The key facts

  • According to KAN, Zamir was not present and was not summoned to the meeting in Ovda; the reason was not explained.
  • The meeting was attended by Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Hegseth and other officials.
  • Channel 12: the visit took place 8 days before the October 27 elections, amid discussions about a possible resumption of large-scale operations against Iran.

Secret meeting without the chief of staff

Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported on Tuesday that IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir was not present at the unannounced meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and was not invited to it. According to KAN, the meeting took place on Monday evening at the Ovda airbase in southern Israel. The broadcaster did not explain the reason for the absence of the invitation. The meeting was attended by Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Hegseth and other officials.

Context of the visit and the elections

Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu secretly met with Hegseth the day before at an air force base in the south of the country. According to Channel 12, the unannounced visit by the American secretary took place eight days before the Israeli elections on October 27 and occurred against the backdrop of US-Israeli discussions about a possible resumption of large-scale military operations against Iran.

The situation inside the country

Zamir said on Tuesday that the army remains in a state of heightened readiness ahead of next week's elections. In the vote, Netanyahu's bloc is facing off against opposition parties amid ongoing political disagreements over the future leadership of the country. Netanyahu has led the government since December 2022, and his coalition is described as the most right-wing in Israel's history. He is also named in three cases on charges of corruption, bribery and breach of trust, and since 2024 has been subject to an International Criminal Court warrant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, where, according to Anadolu, more than 74,000 people have been killed since October 2023.