Following the announcement of the sacking of the defense minister, who called for a “month-long pause in the controversial judicial reform process that the government wants”, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, heading for Kaplan Street in central Tel Aviv. the epicenter of demonstrations that have taken place every week since the presentation in January by the government of the reform project, informs AFP.

In Tel Aviv, protesters set tires on fire Sunday night, police said in a statement.

An AFP journalist found that the demonstrators burned a sofa, and in other places – firewood. A huge crowd took to the streets of Tel Aviv, she said, and demonstrators blocked the main thoroughfare that crosses the city, the Ayalon.

Waving Israeli flags, the demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Bibi, out!”, a nickname for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Other spontaneous rallies were held near the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, as well as in other cities of the country, in Haifa and Beer Sheva, local media reported.

In a speech on Saturday night, Yoav Gallant, although he belongs to the same right-wing party as Prime Minister Netanyahu, Likud, said he feared that continuing to divide the public on the issue would pose a “real security threat” to Israel.

“Israel’s security has been and always will be my life’s mission,” Yoav Gallant wrote on Twitter. He called for a month-long suspension of the legislative process ahead of a crucial week that will be marked by other legislative measures and new mass demonstrations, at the call of protest movement organizers who called for “paralysis” of the country.

“I am committed to the values ​​of Likud (…), but serious changes at the national level must be made through consultation and dialogue,” the minister said on Saturday, while asking for the demonstration to end.

“Netanyahu can remove Galant, but he cannot remove reality and he cannot remove the people of Israel who oppose the madness of the coalition,” opposition leader Yair Lapid, a centrist politician, wrote on Twitter. “The Prime Minister of Israel is a threat to Israel’s security,” he added.