Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday announced his resignation and called for early elections after a sharp disagreement over a Gaza ceasefire deal, throwing the government into turmoil.
Lieberman also said his party was quitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, leaving Netanyahu with only a one-seat majority in parliament.
Elections are not due until November next year, but Lieberman’s resignation increases the likelihood of an earlier vote.
“What happened yesterday — the truce combined with the process with Hamas — is capitulating to terror,” Lieberman told journalists in explaining his reasons for resigning. “What we’re doing now as a state is buying short-term quiet, with the price being severe long-term damage to national security.”
“We should agree on a date for elections as early as possible,” he added.
Netanyahu has defended Tuesday’s ceasefire deal that ended the worst escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since a 2014 war.
An official from Netanyahu’s Likud party hit back at speculation that early elections would be called and said the prime minister would take charge of Lieberman’s portfolio at least temporarily.
“There’s no obligation to go to an election in this time of security sensitivity,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
A Likud spokesman later said that Netanyahu had begun consultations with heads of parties in his coalition to stabilize it and that these would continue yesterday, but he said in a statement that Lieberman had yet to submit his resignation letter.
The party of Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, a Netanyahu rival, was threatening to withdraw from the coalition if he was not given the defense portfolio.
Lieberman, a security hardliner, heads the Yisrael Beitenu party, which holds five seats in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset.
Before taking over as defense minister, he said he would give Hamas leader Ismail 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.”
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 staged a protest to call for further action against Hamas.
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.
Hamas portrayed the ceasefire as a victory and thousands of residents of the blockaded enclave took to the streets late on Tuesday to celebrate.
On Wednesday, Gaza demonstrators burned pictures of Lieberman and sweets were handed out in the streets, while Hamas called his resignation a “victory.”
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.”
The violence saw seven killed in Gaza in 24 hours as Israeli strikes targeted militants and flattened buildings, sending fireballs and plumes of smoke into the sky.
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