Israel defence minister resigns over ceasefire as Gaza row heats up

Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman has resigned his post in protest over a ceasefire reached with Gaza militants in a move that rocked the Israeli political scene and appears likely to bring about early elections.

Mr Lieberman said the ceasefire amounted to “surrender to terrorism” after two days of heavy fighting and declared he could no longer serve a government that endorsed it.

He had demanded a far stronger Israeli response to the most intense round of rocket fire against Israel since a 50-day war in 2014, but appeared to have been overruled by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The resignation delivered a major blow to Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government and sparked immediate calls for early elections. Mr Lieberman said he hoped that in the coming days a date would be set for a new vote. The opposition parties joined his call.

The government still has a narrow one-seat majority in the Knesset without Mr Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu faction, but is unlikely to survive until the next elections, which are set for November 2019.

The party of another Netanyahu rival, Naftali Bennett, has already announced if he is not appointed defence minister it will also quit the coalition – a move that would trigger early elections. Mr Lieberman’s resignation will take effect in the next 24 hours.

Mr Netanyahu will take over the defence portfolio on an interim basis. The prime minister also serves as Israel’s foreign minister.

Mr Netanyahu had come under heavy criticism for agreeing to the ceasefire, especially from his own political base and in rocket-battered towns in southern Israel that are typically strongholds of his ruling Likud Party. Angry residents took to the street on Tuesday chanting “disgrace” at what they saw as the government’s capitulation to violence and its inability to provide long-term security. Many have openly vowed to never vote Likud again.

“We are third-class citizens here in Sderot and the communities on the border with Gaza,” local resident David Maimon complained. “It’s a shame. Instead of helping us and letting us live quietly, they let us suffer.”

Recent months have seen sporadic rocket attacks as well as militant infiltration attempts and a wave of incendiary kites that have destroyed Israeli crops.

Mr Netanyahu presented the decision to step back from a full-blown conflict as a unified one made by his security cabinet and based on the military’s recommendations. But Mr Lieberman and Mr Bennett later expressed reservations, saying they favoured a stronger response.