An Israeli court issued an injunction against the evacuation of protest tents in Tel Aviv overnight to Thursday, pending a debate between municipality representatives and protest leaders.
The injunction by the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court came after lawyers representing the protest leader demanded that it cancel municipal orders to clear the tent camps, Israel Radio reported.
Municipal workers began dismantling the tent camps in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel Wednesday, after eight weeks of protests against the sky-high cost of living and of housing in the country.
Dozens of unarmed police officers had accompanied the municipal workers to preserve public order, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
Some 200 angry protesters clashed with police outside the city hall in central Tel Aviv in the afternoon, trying to break inside but being pushed back.
Rosenfeld denied complaints by some of the protesters of rough treatment and pushing by the officers. A German Press Agency dpa correspondent at the site said he witnessed no police brutality.
No one was injured, but some 40 people were arrested for attacking officers or blocking roads, Rosenfeld said.
Later in the evening, dozens also demonstrated outside the residence of Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who said that for weeks he had supported the social movement and tolerated the tents in the city's Rothchild and Nordau boulevards, but added that it was now time to restore order.
The tent camps had become the symbol of the protests that broke out in mid-July and reached a peak on Saturday night when 400,000 people took to the streets country-wide, in Israel's biggest ever protest.