Israel anti-government protests flare after dismissal of top security agency chief

Thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s choice to remove the chief of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and restart combat in Gaza.

Netanyahu announced this week that he has lost faith in Ronen Bar, who has headed Shin Bet since 2021, and plans to terminate him effective April 10, leading to three days of protests. Israel’s Supreme Court granted an injunction on Friday that temporarily halts the dismissal.

Netanyahu has rejected claims that the decision was driven by political motives, but his opponents have charged him with weakening the foundations of Israel’s democracy by pursuing Bar’s dismissal.

This week, Israel resumed hostilities in Gaza, breaking a ceasefire that permitted the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and provided relief to the beleaguered area. In Habima Square in Tel Aviv, demonstrators waved Israeli flags in blue and white while demanding an agreement for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“The most dangerous enemy of Israel is Benjamin Netanyahu,” protester Moshe Haaharony, 63, told. “Benjamin Netanyahu, for 20 years, doesn’t care about the country, doesn’t care about the citizens.”

Since the start of the war, there have also been regular protests by families and supporters of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 attack that have sometimes echoed the criticisms of the government.

“We are a year and a half later after we had very fierce fighting in Gaza and Hamas is still in power,” protester Erez Berman, 44, told . “It still has tens of thousands of fighters. So the Israeli government actually failed in getting its own goals out of the war.”