The failed Israeli operation in Gaza has brought down Lieberman on its way to topple the entire Israeli government

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced his resignation Wednesday, rejecting a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip after a sharp row with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and calling for a date for early elections.

“Yesterday’s announcement of a cease-fire and truce agreement is a submission and surrender to terrorism”, Lieberman told reporters.

“What we are doing now as a state is to buy calm over the short term, but we will pay for the long term and cause great damage” at the national security level.

Lieberman added that his party would also withdraw from Netanyahu’s coalition, meaning that the government would have a majority of one seat in parliament.

On Wednesday evening, a spokesman for Likud, the right-wing party led by Netanyahu, said Lieberman had not yet submitted his resignation in writing.

“The prime minister will continue his consultations tonight on Thursday”.

The spokesman denied that the prime minister has made any decision on who will succeed Lieberman in the ministry or who will replace his party in the coalition government, nor whether Netanyahu will call for early legislative elections.

A Likud official said earlier that Netanyahu, who is already a second cabinet minister, could take over the defense portfolio and did not see the need for early elections “at this time because of the security sensitivity involved”.

The Knesset elections are scheduled for November 2019, but Lieberman’s resignation increases the likelihood of early elections.

Netanyahu defended his decision to cease fire with Gaza after the most serious escalation between Israel and the Palestinian armed factions since the war of 2014, which was accompanied by heavy raids on the Gaza Strip and the firing of hundreds of mortar shells and missiles on the neighboring towns of the sector.

“In times of emergency when critical decisions are made for security, the public can not always be aware of the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy”, Netanyahu said at a ceremony honoring Israel’s founder David Ben-Gurion.

Israeli radio quoted a source close to Netanyahu as saying that the primary goal was to ensure the stability of the coalition government to enable it to move forward.

The source added that “the Prime Minister will be in the near hour’s talks with the heads of coalition parties in order to refrain from early elections”.

The “Jewish House” party, led by Naftali Bennett, quickly demanded the portfolio of the Defense Ministry after Lieberman resigned.

“It is time to hand over the defense portfolio to Naftali Bennett, and without this bag, the bloc will not remain a partner in the government coalition”, said Shuli Maalem, head of the Jewish House bloc.

He welcomed the head of the party, “Yated” (there is a future) and the leader of the Labor Party and the leader of the opposition of the Zionist camp and others to resign Lieberman.

“A government that failed in security must resign”, said Tzipi Livni of the Zionist camp.

No peace, no security”.

The left-wing Meretz party leader Tamar Zindberg said she would submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset.

“A corrupt racist minister who has fallen into Israeli politics has been thrown to the bottom”, she said.

Lieberman, the ultra-nationalist, heads “Yisrael Beiteinu”, the party that holds five out of 120 Knesset seats.

Hamas said it viewed Lieberman’s resignation as a “political victory” for Gaza and “recognition of defeat and incompetence in the face of the Palestinian resistance”.

The spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Gaza “has succeeded in steadfastness to cause a political shake in the arena of occupation”.

“This is one of the quick consequences of the failure of the occupation and the recognition of its defeat”, the Islamic Jihad movement said in response to Lieberman’s resignation.

Lieberman was incapable of standing up to the resistance.

All the actions of the occupation failed before the steadfastness of Gaza and its steadfastness and patience”.

Palestinian factions in Gaza declared a ceasefire with Israel on Tuesday evening after a serious escalation of violence since Sunday, threatening a war between the besieged enclave and the Jewish state.

After the cease-fire was announced, thousands of Gaza residents took to the streets in joy demonstrations.

On Wednesday, a relative calm in the Gaza Strip, where a Palestinian fisherman was shot dead by the Israeli army north of the town of Beit Lahiya, threw him in the sea in a border area, according to the Ministry of Health and security source.

Fifteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire and air strikes since Sunday night.

While an Israeli officer was killed.

A Palestinian worker was killed on the Israeli side by a rocket fired from Gaza.

Since Sunday evening.

Heavy air strikes were launched against the Gaza Strip, hitting 160 targets, while 460 mortar rounds and rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.

The clashes broke out after the incursion of an Israeli unit clashed with the Izz Al Din Al Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

The cease-fire was met with opposition within the Israeli government and Israelis living near the Gaza Strip, protesting on Tuesday and early Wednesday demanding continued raids against Hamas and the resignation of Netanyahu, Lieberman and Bennett.

“Our enemies have begged for a ceasefire and they know very well why”, Netanyahu said.

I hear the voices of the people of the south, believe me…

They are dear to my heart, but I see the general picture that relates to the security of Israel with the heads of the security services, and what is hidden is greater”.

A diplomatic source familiar with the deal said Israel and Hamas had committed themselves to return “to the content of the 2014 agreement”, but said the situation was still “fragile” and could explode “again”.

Egypt brokered a ceasefire during previous escalation, while UN envoy to the Middle East Nikolai Mladenov sought a long-term truce between the two sides in recent weeks.

On the other hand, gathered about 300 Israelis on Wednesday demanding “security” in Ashkelon and closed the road between the city and the Gaza Strip, according to one of the photographers AFP.

Many analysts in the Hebrew media saw that Lieberman was no more than a caricature, while others said that his presence in the Ministry of Security would leave no impression on the security policy of the Hebrew state.

He left the ministry as he entered.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to present the date of the general elections in Israel, against the background of the ruling coalition’s refusal and absolute refusal to assign the security portfolio to Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who demanded it as leader of the Jewish House party, Coalition Nay.

Recent public opinion polls in Israel clearly indicate Lieberman’s strength in the Jewish public, while other polls have confirmed that he and his party, “Yisrael Beiteinu”, will not pass the resolution.

Before the 2013 elections, To raise the discount rate, in order to prevent the Arabs from reaching the Knesset, and now this law returns to backfire at him and his party, which does not hide at all hate and hostility towards the Arabs.

Born in the former Soviet Union in 1978, Lieberman is married and has three children.

He lives in the settlement of Nokdim near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem and is known for his incitement and racist statements against Arabs in general and against Palestinians in particular.

He repeated his controversial remarks against Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accusing him of practicing what he called international political terrorism against Israel, saying that Abbas shares roles with Hamas leaders, the most dangerous of them on this level.