JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, triggering mass protests a day after Gallant broke ranks with the government and urged a halt to a highly contested plan to overhaul the judicial system.
As the news of the dismissal spread, tens of thousands of protesters, many waving blue and white Israeli flags, took to the streets late at night. Crowds gathered outside Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem and breached a security cordon.
Three months since taking office, Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition has been plunged into crisis due to the bitter divisions exposed by its flagship judicial overhaul plans.
State security is not a card in the political game. Netanyahu crossed a red line tonight, opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz said in a joint statement.
They called on members of Netanyahu's Likud party not to have a hand in the crushing of national security. In announcing Gallant's dismissal, Netanyahu's office did not give any other details. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to sabotage Defence Minister Yoav Gallant this evening, it said.
Gallant, 64, wrote on Twitter that Israel's security has always been and will always be my mission.