Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, citing a "crisis of trust", and replaced him with close ally Israel Katz to lead the country's war in Gaza and Lebanon.
Netanyahu's critics accused him of putting politics ahead of national security at a time when Israel is bracing for Iranian retaliation to its October 26 airstrikes on the Islamic Republic.
The move sparked protests across the country, including a mass gathering that paralysed central Tel Aviv.
The prime minister named Gideon Saar as the new foreign minister in place of Katz.
Within hours, thousands of protesters gathered in central Tel Aviv, blocking the city's main highway and crippling traffic.
Several thousand people demonstrated outside Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the city.
Protesters gathered and blocked roads in several other spots across the country, and Israeli TV stations showed images of police scuffling with demonstrators.
Gallant and Netanyahu, both in the right-wing Likud party, have clashed for months over the objectives of Israel's 13-month-old war in Gaza against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
But the timing of Gallant's dismissal was a surprise and came as Israel's ally the US held its presidential election.
Netanyahu said Gallant has made statements that "contradict the decisions of the government and the decisions of the cabinet".
In response, Gallant said: "The security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life’s mission."
Katz vowed the return of Israel's hostages from Gaza and destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah.
"I accept this responsibility with a sense of mission and holy fear for the security of the State of Israel and its citizens," Katz said on social media platform X.
Reports appeared in September that Netanyahu, under pressure from far-right coalition partners, was considering firing Gallant.
Gayil Talshir, a specialist in Israeli politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, believed the last straw for Netanyahu came this week when Gallant issued 7000 draft notices for ultra-Orthodox Haredi men, angering those in the government who oppose conscription.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a minister in Netanyahu's coalition government, praised Tuesday's decision, saying Gallant was "deeply trapped in the conception" that it "is not possible to achieve absolute victory".
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X, however, that "firing Gallant in the middle of a war is an act of madness".
In Washington, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said Gallant had been an important partner and it would continue working collaboratively with Katz.
Gallant rose to the rank of general during a 35-year military career.
France's foreign minister will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, a day after US elections, to press Israel to engage diplomatically to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli forces issued new evacuation orders in the northern Gaza Strip and carried out military strikes which Palestinian medics and media said had killed at least 35 people since Monday night.
Acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya said on X that Israeli military ground operations in northern Gaza had left Palestinians “without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes”.
An airstrike late on Monday damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 20 people, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.
Ten were killed in central areas of the Palestinian enclave - six in separate airstrikes on Gaza City and the town of Deir Al-Balah, and four in the town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics and health officials said.
At least five others were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia north of Gaza City, medics added.
With AP
