Israeli president urges immediate halt to judicial reform

Israeli President Isaac Herzog urged the government to immediately halt the judicial reform on March 27.

"For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of responsibility, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately," Herzog said in his statement on Twitter, according to Reuters.

Earlier in the day, the protesters blocked the Ayalon highway in eastern Tel Aviv for several hours. According to estimates by the private company Crowd Solutions, cited by Israeli TV Channel 13, there were around 105,000 people in the area with the largest concentration of protesters.

The police, who had not intervened in the situation before that, began to push back the protesters. Some protesters began to resist the police, there were clashes, and the police began to actively use water cannons.

The reason for the protests, which began in Israel on the evening of March 26, was the resignation of the country's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, announced by Netanyahu. This decision was taken after Gallant, the day before, openly supported the suspension of the judicial reform promoted by the ruling coalition, which led to massive protests by the opposition.