Israeli defence minister quits over Gaza truce

TEL AVIV - Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced his resignation on Wednesday in protest at a Gaza ceasefire that he called a "capitulation to terror", weakening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative coalition government.

"Were I to stay in office, I would not be able to look southern residents in the eye," Lieberman said, referring to Israelis who are calling for an assault on the Gaza Strip following a surge in Palestinian rocket attacks before Tuesday's truce took hold.

Lieberman described the ceasefire ending the worst escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war "capitulating to terror" and said he was quitting his post.

"What we're doing now as a state is buying short-term quiet, with the price being severe long-term damage to national security."

He added later: "We should agree on a date for elections as early as possible."

The ceasefire held on Wednesday, but Netanyahu was seeking to combat criticism of the decision.

Beyond Lieberman's resignation, several hundred Israelis living near the border with Gaza protested on Tuesday night to call for further military action.

Netanyahu defended his strategy and said: "Our enemies begged for a ceasefire.

"In times of emergency, when making decisions crucial to security, the public can't always be privy to the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy," he said at a ceremony on Wednesday morning in honour of Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion.

Political victory?

Hamas meanwhile called Lieberman's resignation a "political victory for Gaza" and thousands of residents of the blockaded enclave took to the streets late Tuesday to celebrate.

On Wednesday, Gazan demonstrators burned pictures of Lieberman and sweets were handed out in the streets.

The Egyptian-brokered truce was announced by Gaza militant groups, including Hamas, on Tuesday.

A diplomatic source familiar with the agreement said it involved returning to arrangements put in place following the 2014 war, but warned: "The situation remains very precarious and can blow up again.

"What we have seen in the past 48 hours was very dangerous and no efforts should be spared to avoid similar flare-ups."

The flare-up began when Palestinian militants fired rockets in response to a botched Israeli special forces operation inside Gaza on Sunday that saw one Israeli commander killed and threatened to lead to an all-out war.

The battle that resulted from the blown operation also killed seven Palestinian militants, including a local Hamas military commander.

The ensuing violence saw seven Gazans killed in 24 hours as Israeli strikes flattened buildings in the besieged Strip, sending fireballs and plumes of smoke into the sky.

Sirens wailed in southern Israel as militants unleashed barrages of rocket and mortar fire, sending residents rushing to shelters.

Around 460 rockets and mortar rounds were fired at Israel, the most ever in such a brief time period, the army said.

An anti-tank missile hit a bus near the Gaza border that Hamas says was being used by Israel's army. An Israeli soldier was severely wounded.

In all, some 27 Israelis were wounded, three of them severely.

A Palestinian labourer from the occupied West Bank was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Sensitive period

Lieberman said his resignation, which will go into effect 48 hours after he submits a formal letter to Netanyahu, also withdraws his far-right Israel Beitenu party from the coalition.

That would leave Netanyahu with control of just 61 of the 120 seats in parliament a year before Israel's next election.

Israeli political commentators had speculated that Netanyahu, who despite his approval ratings has been dogged by multiple corruption investigations, might bring forward the ballot.

But a spokesman for his rightist Likud party played down that option, saying Netanyahu would assume the defence post.

"There is no need to go to an election during what is a sensitive period for national security. This government can see out its days," the spokesman, Jonatan Urich, said on Twitter.

Lieberman has spoken in favour of harsh Israeli military action against Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists, even as the government authorised a Qatari cash infusion to the impoverished enclave last week and limited itself to air strikes rather than a wider campaigns during this week's fighting.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Lieberman's voter base is made up of fellow Russian-speaking immigrants, and rightists and secularists who share his hostility to both Palestinian citizens of Israel and the religious authority wielded by ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.

The former foreign minister, received the defence portfolio in May 2016. Before taking over as defence minister, he made a series of controversial statements, including one directed at Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

Lieberman said he would give Haniya 48 hours to hand over two detained Israeli civilians and the bodies of soldiers killed in the 2014 war "or you're dead".

He later backed off and said he was committed to "responsible, reasonable policy".