Court suspends Israeli govt's sacking of attorney general

The Israeli cabinet voted unanimously on Monday to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, only for a court to immediately suspend the move.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced the cabinet's decision and addressed a letter to Baharav-Miara saying she "should not try to impose herself on a government that has no trust in her and cannot work with her effectively".

Immediately after the decision, however, opposition party Yesh Atid and activist groups filed urgent petitions to Israel's High Court of Justice seeking to halt the dismissal.

In response, the court issued an injunction suspending the decision and preventing the government from appointing a substitute.

It announced it would hear further petitions against the sacking in the following 30 days.

Baharav-Miara has been at loggerheads with the government since it took office, challenging the legality of some of Netanyahu's decisions, most recently his attempt in May to fire the head of the Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar.

Bar's agency has been conducting an investigation into illicit payments from Qatar to some of Netanyahu's close aides, a case known in the Israeli press as "Qatargate". His firing has been viewed as a political move.