ISRAEL’S defence minister has abruptly quit in protest over a ceasefire agreement struck with Gaza militants in a move that seems likely to bring about early elections.
Avigdor Lieberman termed the ceasefire ending two days of intense fighting “surrender to terrorism”, and said he could no longer serve a government that endorsed it.
The former minister 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.
His resignation delivers a major blow to Netanyahu’s coalition government and sparked immediate calls for early elections.
Lieberman said he hoped that in the coming days a date would be set for a new vote and the opposition parties joined his call.
The government could technically survive without Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu faction.
But with elections currently set for November 2019, it is unlikely to last that long in lame-duck form.
Palestinian militants had fired 460 rockets and mortars into Israel in a 24-hour period, while the Israeli military carried out airstrikes on 160 Gaza targets.
Seven Palestinians were killed. In Israel, one person was killed and three were critically wounded.
The violence was triggered by a botched Israeli raid on Sunday that left seven Palestinian militants and a senior Israeli military officer dead.
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