Libya’s Prime Minister sacked foreign minister Najla Mangoush on Monday in an effort to contain a growing furore over Mangoush’s meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, which prompted protests overnight in several Libyan cities.

Mangoush had said her meeting with Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen in Rome was unplanned and informal, but an Israeli official told Reuters it had lasted two hours and was approved “at the highest levels in Libya”.

The meeting is contentious because Libya does not formally recognise Israel and there is widespread public support across the Libyan political spectrum for the Palestinian cause of creating an independent state in the territory Israel occupies.

The dispute over the meeting has fed into Libya’s internal political crisis, giving ammunition to Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah’s internal critics at a moment when the future of his interim government was already in question.

Libya has been without a stable central government since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Dbeibah’s interim government, in office since 2021, is not recognised by some major factions and there is growing political momentum to replace it with a new unified administration aimed at holding national elections.

Protesters demonstrated in front of Libya’s foreign ministry late on Sunday, causing some damage outside the building, where a large security presence was visible early on Monday. Protests took place in other parts of Tripoli, as well as other cities. Burning tyres blocked some roads in Tripoli on Monday but there was no sign of violence.

Mangoush’s office tried to quell the anger late on Sunday, saying she had rejected a request for an official meeting with Cohen, but that they had met during an unplanned encounter while she was meeting Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani.

The Israeli official disputed that account. “The meeting was coordinated at the highest levels in Libya and lasted almost two hours. The Libya Prime Minister sees Israel as a possible bridge to the West and the US administration,” the official said.