Demonstrators holding Israeli flags and chanting "democracy, democracy" also entered the stock exchange building in Tel Aviv and staged a rally there, an AFP correspondent said. Josh Drill, a spokesman for the protest movement, said pressure on the government would continue through "non-violent acts of civil disobedience".

Austin's talks with his hosts were centred on the changing geopolitics of the region, which is currently roiled by rising threat from Iran and the ongoing war in Ukraine.