GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinians celebrated the sudden resignation Nov. 14 of hawkish Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, launching spontaneous marches in the Gaza Strip. A senior Hamas official said Liberman's departure could speed up efforts to reach a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel through Egyptian, Qatari and UN mediation.

Liberman resigned a day after Israel and Palestinian armed factions reached a cease-fire agreement, even as an especially fierce and deadly cross-border exchange was taking place, with Palestinian rockets and mortar shells bombarding southern Israel, and Israeli airstrikes punishing Gaza. That exchange followed one on Nov. 11, when Hamas detected a special Israeli force trying to carry out a secret mission in eastern Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the cease-fire, but Liberman saw it as conceding to terrorists.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar told Al-Monitor that Liberman’s resignation was the result of the Israeli army’s many defeats during armed confrontations with Palestinian factions in recent months. Liberman's departure could bode well for truce talks, Zahar said, but Hamas warned that whoever replaces Liberman will face the same fate if he even thinks of carrying out a military assault on the Gaza Strip. There's always that possibility, he said: “Our battle with them is long and will not end with a couple of rounds of military clashes."