Jerusalem:Israeli public broadcaster reported Tuesday that Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir was excluded from a secret meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in southern Israel.

According to Anadolu Agency – English, Chief of Staff Zamir did not attend the unusual meeting held last night at an airbase in the south, nor was he summoned, as stated by KAN about the meeting on Monday.

Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, Hegseth, and other officials attended the meeting, it said. KAN did not explain why Zamir was not invited to the previously unannounced talks at Ovda Airbase. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu met Hegseth secretly the previous day at an Israeli Air Force base in southern Israel.

Channel 12 noted that Hegseth's unannounced visit came eight days before Israel's Oct. 27 elections, amid US-Israeli discussions about potentially resuming large-scale combat operations against Iran. Zamir reiterated Tuesday that the Israeli military remained on high alert and ready ahead of next week's elections.

The vote will pit Netanyahu's bloc against opposition parties amid continued political divisions about the country's future leadership. Netanyahu has headed the government since December 2022, leading a coalition widely described as the most right-wing in Israel's history. He also faces corruption, bribery, and breach of trust charges in three cases.

Netanyahu has also been wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2024 for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip, where more than 74,000 victims have been killed in a genocidal war since October 2023.