Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Israel in anger after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly fired his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Protesters in Tel Aviv blocked a main highway and lit large bonfires while police scuffled with protesters outside Netanyahu’s private home in Jerusalem and used water cannons to push them back from the home.

The unrest deepened a months-long crisis over Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, which has sparked mass protests, alarmed business leaders and former security chiefs, and drawn concern from the United States and other close allies.

Gallant had been the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to speak out against it, saying the deep divisions were threatening to weaken the military.

As droves of protesters flooded the streets late into the night, Likud ministers began to indicate a willingness to slow the reform plans. Culture Minister Micky Zohar, a Netanyahu confidant, said the party would support him if he decided to pause the judicial overhaul.

Netanyahu made the decision to sack Gallant after the former navy admiral warned that the overhaul plans risked “a clear, immediate and tangible threat to the security of the state” and called for them to be halted.

Netanyahu’s office did not name a replacement nor give any other details.

Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz issued a joint statement condemning Netanyahu’s moves.

The head of the Histadrut labour federation, the umbrella organisation for hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, said he was “astonished” by Gallant’s removal and promised a “dramatic” announcement.

Israel’s consul-general in New York said he was resigning over the dismissal while Israel’s research universities announced they would stop holding classes due to the legislative push, calling for its immediate freeze.