The head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, has been sacked, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him.
It comes amid fallout from a report on the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.
"The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to end Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar's term of office," a statement said.
Mr Bar will leave his post when his successor is appointed or by 10 April at the latest, the statement said.
The Israeli leader earlier cited an "ongoing lack of trust" as the reason for moving to dismiss Mr Bar, who joined the agency in 1993.
Mr Bar was appointed Shin Bet chief in October 2021 by the previous Israeli government that briefly forced Mr Netanyahu from power between June 2021 and December 2022.
His relations with Mr Netanyahu were strained even before the unprecedented October Hamas attack which sparked the war in Gaza, notably over proposed judicial reforms that had split the country.
Relations worsened after the 4 March release of the internal Shin Bet report on the Hamas attack.
It acknowledged the agency's own failure in preventing the attack, but also said "a policy of quiet had enabled Hamas to undergo massive military buildup".
Mr Bar had already hinted that he would resign before the end of his term, taking responsibility for his agency's failure to prevent the attack.
Secret motives
Mr Bar's dismissal provoked the anger of the opposition and led to demonstrations accusing the Israeli leader of threatening democracy.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel denounced in a statement "an unlawful decision... posing a real risk to the national security of the State of Israel", while opposition leader Yair Lapid's centre-right party said it has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, and denounced what it called "a decision based on flagrant conflict of interest".
Several thousand people braved bad weather to demonstrate outside Mr Netanyahu's private residence in Jerusalem and then the Israeli parliament, where ministers were meeting.
In a letter made public yesterday, the outgoing chief said Mr Netanyahu's arguments were "general, unsubstantiated accusations that seem to hide the motivations behind the decision to terminate (his) duties".
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Mr Bar wrote the real motives were based on "personal interest" and intended to "prevent investigations into the events leading up to 7 October and other serious matters" being looked at by the Shin Bet.
The dismissal comes after the Israeli army launched a series of massive and deadly bombardments on Gaza, following a two-month truce and "targeted" ground operations.
Mr Netanyahu said the operations were intended to put pressure on Hamas to release the 58 hostages remaining in the territory.
In a rare criticism of Mr Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that he was worried the resumption of strikes in a time of crisis could undermine "national resilience".
