Mass protest after Netanyahu sacks defense minister

STORY: Protesters took to the streets after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (March 26) sacked Defence Minister Yoav Gallant a day after Gallant broke ranks with the government and urged a halt to a highly contested plan to overhaul the judicial system.

As news of the dismissal spread, tens of thousands of protesters, many waving blue and white Israeli flags, took to the streets late at night across the country. Crowds gathered outside Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem, at one point breaching a security cordon.

As protesters poured into the streets, police used water cannons to push them back from Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, while in Tel Aviv, where hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets since the beginning of the year, protesters lighted large bonfires on a main highway.