Thousands of Israelis protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissal of his defense minister, demanding the government do everything in its power to bring home hostages held in Gaza.

The demonstration erupted soon after Netanyahu's office announced the sacking of Yoav Gallant on Tuesday following public differences over the war with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed his popular defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in a surprise announcement that came as Israel is embroiled in wars on multiple fronts across the region.

Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival. Netanyahu cited "significant gaps" and a "crisis of trust" between the men in his Tuesday evening announcement.

An Israeli strike hit a Syrian town near the border with Lebanon on Tuesday, Syrian state media said, less than a week after deadly strikes on the same area.

Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday reiterated that his country does not seek an escalation in the Middle East but reserved the right to defend itself against Israel’s attack with a “measured and calculated” response.

Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has approved sending an additional 7,000 draft notices to members of the country’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Under long-standing political arrangements, ultra-Orthodox Jews had been exempt from military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women. However, Israel’s Supreme Court in June ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the army.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pinned blame on Hamas for rejecting a temporary Gaza truce as he also pressed Israel again to allow more aid into the Palestinian territory.

The Biden administration is stepping up criticism of Israel for not doing enough to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza as a 30-day deadline looms for Israeli officials to meet certain requirements or risk potential restrictions on military assistance.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Monday gave Israel a "fail" grade in terms of meeting the conditions for an improvement in aid deliveries to Gaza laid out in a letter last month to senior Israeli officials from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

A senior Hamas official said members of the militant group held a meeting with a delegation from the rival Fatah party in Cairo to discuss the war in Gaza and the enclave’s future governance, though the meeting did not lead to any major breakthroughs.

Osama Hamdan described the talks between the two heavyweights of Palestinian politics as “positive” but “frank.” He said the two sides discussed the formation of a future government for the Palestinian territories but provided few details as to how and when that would occur.

Palestinian officials say Israeli forces have killed three people in the occupied West Bank.

Two were killed in an airstrike early Tuesday near the northern city of Jenin, a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent years. A third person was shot in the village of Tamoun, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip has killed at least 20 people, mostly women and children.

Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of a nearby hospital that received the casualties, said the strike late Monday hit a home in the town of Beit Lahiya where multiple families were sheltering.