Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities across the occupied territories to protest the sacking of minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant.
Protesters gathered and blocked roads in several spots across the occupied territories on Tuesday evening, hours after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Gallant in a surprise announcement amid the regime’s failure in the face of the resistance in Gaza and Lebanon.
In Tel Aviv, demonstrators blocked a main highway and lit large bonfires, as they chanted slogans against Netanyahu and blew whistles and pounded drums.
Police scuffled with the protesters and used water cannon to disperse them.
There were similar protests in Haifa, Caesarea, and other places, while several thousand people rallied outside Netanyahu’s home in al-Quds and elsewhere in the city.
The protesters called on Gallant’s successor Israel Katz to prioritize a deal with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas to release the captives still held in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu sacked Gallant, citing “significant gaps” and an “erosion of trust” as reasons for the firing. The Israeli prime minister replaced Gallant with his longtime ally and foreign minister Israel Katz.
The statement by Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying that Gallant’s decisions and public statements increasingly contradicted the regime’s collective decisions.
Netanyahu and Gallant have frequently clashed over the campaign of genocide in Gaza.
Gallant had publicly criticized Netanyahu for the breakdown of a Gaza ceasefire agreement, prompting a sharp response from the prime minister's office.
Israeli media had highlighted significant rifts between Netanyahu and key security officials, including Gallant, over the ceasefire, a potential prisoner exchange with Hamas, and the oversight of the Gaza-Egypt border area, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, in addition to the escalating situation along Lebanon’s border.
Netanyahu is blamed for blocking the Gaza ceasefire deal to advance his personal agenda.
Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza for the past year, killing over 43,000 and injuring more than 100,000 others.
The regime recently launched a brutal war on Lebanon, which has reduced a number of villages in southern Lebanon to rubble and killed and injured thousands.