Netanyahu's far-right party quashes early election rumours

Israel's far-right Likud party denied on Friday a report Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to call early elections after a top cabinet minister resigned in protest against a Gaza ceasefire. 

A party spokesman said Netanyahu met Education Minister Naftali Bennett Friday after the government was left with a knife-edge majority in parliament following a key coalition partner's resignation.

"The prime minister told minister Bennett that rumours that a decision has been made to go to elections are not correct," he said in a statement.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasised the importance of making every effort to preserve the right-wing government."

The statement was issued shortly after a source close to Bennett told AFP the two had agreed that "it would be senseless to continue" with the same coalition.

"They will set a date for elections when they meet with the [other] coalition partners Sunday," the source said.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman quit Wednesday over a cease-fire deal for Gaza, taking the rest of his hawkish Yisrael Beitenu party with him and leaving the coalition with a single seat majority in parliament.

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Bennett, Netanyahu's other main right-wing rival and head of the religious nationalist Jewish Home party, has threatened to quit unless he is given Lieberman's job.

Netanyahu has been seeking to contain the political fallout of his decision to accept a ceasefire deal on Tuesday that ended the worst escalation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza since a 2014 war.

Netanyahu's popularity is in large part due to his reputation as Israel's "Mr. Security", as he has often been dubbed, and he has defended his decision saying: "Our enemies begged for a ceasefire."

The Gaza violence had erupted on Sunday with a botched Israeli special forces operation inside the territory that turned deadly and prompted Hamas to vow revenge.

Palestinian militants responded with rocket and mortar fire, as well as an anti-tank missile that hit a bus that Hamas says was being used by Israeli soldiers. A soldier was severely wounded in the attack.

Around 460 rockets and mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip, wounding 27 people, 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.

Israel hit back with widespread air strikes on some 160 targets in the Gaza Strip before the Egyptian-brokered truce took effect Tuesday. Seven Gazans were killed.

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