Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sacked Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, triggering mass protests. This came a day after Gallant broke ranks with the government and urged a halt to a highly contested plan to overhaul the judicial system, Reuters reported.

The news of the dismissal resulted in tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets late at night across the country. Crowds gathered outside Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem, at one point breaching a security cordon.

About three months since taking office, Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition has been plunged into crisis over the bitter divisions exposed by its flagship judicial overhaul plans, as per the Reuters report.

"State security cannot be a card in the political game. Netanyahu crossed a red line tonight," opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz said in a joint statement.

They called on members of Netanyahu's Likud party not to have a hand in "the crushing of national security."

While announcing Gallant's dismissal, Netanyahu's office did not name a replacement nor give any other details. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided this evening to dismiss Defence Minister Yoav Gallant," it said.

Shortly afterward, Gallant took to Twitter saying, "The state of Israel’s security has always been and will always be my life's mission."

Netanyahu decided to sack Gallant after the former navy admiral warned on Saturday that the overhaul plans risked "a clear, immediate and tangible threat to the security of the state" and called for them to be halted.

"At this time, for the sake of our country, I am willing to take any risk and pay any price," Gallant said in his televised address.

Earlier this month, President Isaac Herzog, warned that the country faced "disaster" unless a broader consensus could be reached on how to overhaul the judiciary.

But Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges that he denies, has vowed to continue with a project he says is 'needed to rein in activist judges and restore the proper balance between an elected government and the judiciary.'

Image courtesy: Reuters