JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police deployed a water cannon and made several arrests on Thursday as protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to oust the head of the domestic intelligence service flared for a third consecutive day.
Thousands of Israelis have joined anti-Netanyahu demonstrations with opponents of the move to sack Shin Bet head Ronen Bar joining forces with protesters angry at the decision to resume fighting in Gaza, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, while 59 Israeli hostages remain in the Palestinian enclave.
“We’re very, very worried that our country is becoming a dictatorship,” Rinat Hadashi, 59, said in Jerusalem. “They’re abandoning our hostages, they’re neglecting all the important things for this country.”
On Thursday, police and demonstrators clashed as hundreds marched along the road leading to the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem, where police said dozens of protesters tried to break through security cordons.
Protests were planned later outside the Kirya military headquarters complex in Tel Aviv.
A day earlier there were angry confrontations between protesters and counter-demonstrators, highlighting divisions that have deepened since Netanyahu returned to power at the head of a right-wing coalition at the end of 2022.
Even before the war in Gaza, tens of thousands of Israelis were joining regular demonstrations protesting at a government drive to curb the power of the judiciary that critics saw as an assault on Israeli democracy but which the government said was needed to limit judicial overreach.
Since the start of the war, there have also been regular protests by families and supporters of hostages seized by Hamas during its assault on Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that have sometimes echoed the criticisms of the government.
Israel’s cabinet is expected to meet on Friday to formally approve the dismissal of Bar, who has clashed with Netanyahu over a corruption investigation against aides in his office that the prime minister has called a politically motivated attack.
(Reporting by Emily Rose; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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