Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated last night in protest at the cancellation of railway repairs on Shabbat, leading to the shutdown of the Tel Aviv-Haifa line today.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a halt to the planned works on Friday in response to protests from Charedi politicians.

Mr Netanyahu, in a statement quoted by Israeli media, said, “When we need to do work during Shabbat, it takes place, like it did last week. But when there is no reason, it won’t. This is our guiding principle.”

Trains do not run on Shabbat. But the carrying out of maintenance today led to increased road traffic.

The incident has caused tensions between Mr Netanyahu and his Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, who had backed the works over Shabbat.

The Prime Minister, according to Ha’aretz, had accused Mr Katz of trying to instigate “an unnecessary crisis with the ultra-Orthodox in order to weaken the government”.