Israel’s ex-defence minister has attacked his former boss Benjamin Netanyahu and announced that he plans to run against him in the next elections.

Moshe Ya’alon, a respected former army general, was pushed out of the government last month as part of a deal struck by Mr Netanyahu to bring a Right-wing nationalist party into his coalition.

Mr Ya’alon resigned from parliament in protest but on Thursday announced that he plans his own bid to become the next leader of Israel.

“My intent is to run for the leadership of Israel in the next elections,” he said in a speech at a security conference at the coastal city of Herzilya.

Mr Ya’alon attacked the prime minister for trying “scaring the citizens of Israel and giving them the sense that we are on the brink of a second Holocaust.”