Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has said it is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who must resign, Al Jazeera reports.

“If a loss of confidence is a reason for dismissal, then the first person to be dismissed is Netanyahu. Israel has lost confidence in him,” he told the Israeli broadcasting authority.

Netanyahu intends to force out the head of the internal security agency, Shin Bet, causing another political firestorm.

Yair Golan, another opposition politician, said he has been warning for years that Israel is “sliding towards dictatorship”.

“The government wants to give itself the right to do whatever it wants based on the orders of a corrupt person,” he said, according to Israeli media. “Netanyahu thinks he is a supreme ruler who can do whatever he wants.”