In a letter published late on Wednesday, justice minister Yariv Levin said the move was over “inappropriate conduct and the existence of significant and prolonged disagreements between the government and the attorney general”.

The minister also indirectly accused Baharav-Miara, Israel’s first female attorney general, of politicising her position as legal adviser of the government.

“Legal advice reflects the position of the law”, the letter stated, and should not be “advice that serves as a political tool, misusing its position for political purposes to completely paralyse the work of the government”.

Levin submitted a motion of a no-confidence to the cabinet secretary, part of a process that commentators say could go all the way to Israel’s Supreme Court.

Baharav-Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary’s independence, has often taken positions that clashed with those of Netanyahu’s government.

When the prime minister returned to power in 2022 after being ousted, Baharav-Miara warned that his new government’s legislative programme threatened to turn Israel into a “democracy in name, but not in essence”.

In March 2023, she accused Netanyahu of acting “illegally” when championing the controversial judicial reforms that caused political division and mass protests.

After the war in Gaza started, she criticised the unequal enforcement of Israel’s mandatory military service, due to long-standing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested on Wednesday on X that her criticism of the government’s stance on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community was behind the attempt to sack her.

“She only told them two things they needed to do: recruit evaders and stop transferring corrupt funds to the ultra-Orthodox under the table. That’s why they want to oust her”, Lapid wrote on X.