Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Israel's internal security chief, whose dismissal was blocked by the supreme court, of investigating far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir without his consent.
"The claim that the prime minister authorised Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to gather evidence against Minister Ben Gvir is yet another exposed lie," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.
He was responding to a report that Bar's agency had spent months investigating far-right infiltration of the police and its links to Ben Gvir.
"The published document, which contains an explicit directive from the Shin Bet chief to gather evidence against political leaders, resembles dark regimes, undermines democracy and aims to bring down a right-wing government," the statement added.
Ben Gvir reacted on X, calling Bar a "criminal" and a "liar" who was "trying to deny his attempted conspiracy against elected officials in a democratic country, even after the documents were exposed to the public and the world".
On Friday, Israel's supreme court froze the government's unprecedented decision to sack Bar, a move that deepened political divisions in the country.
It came hours after the government, one of the most right-wing in Israel's history, backed Netanyahu's proposal to dismiss Bar, with the prime minister saying he had lost confidence in him.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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