Israel’s hawkish defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has announced he is resigning from the rightwing coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu in protest at a Gaza truce.

Announcing his decision, Lieberman called Tuesday’s Egyptian-mediated deal with the Palestinian militant group Hamas “a capitulation to terror” and called for elections.

“What happened yesterday – the truce combined with the process with Hamas – is a capitulation to terror. It has no other meaning,” Lieberman told journalists. “What we’re doing now as a state is buying short-term quiet, with the price being severe long-term damage to national security.”

Lieberman has long demanded a more aggressive Israeli policy in Gaza, and his announcement follows the most intense round of fighting since the war in 2014.

The two-day bout of violence erupted after Israeli special forces engaged in a deadly firefight with gunmen on Sunday in what appeared to have been an intelligence mission deep inside the coastal enclave that was exposed when they passed a Hamas checkpoint.

Hamas and Israel have traded frequent rocket fire and airstrikes for months, often as tensions spike over the bloodshed at regular Palestinian protests along the frontier. Israeli soldiers have killed about 170 demonstrators and injured thousands more.

On Wednesday, officials in Gaza said Israeli forces had killed a 20-year-old Palestinian fisherman as he was working near the strip’s north. Israel’s military said its troops had opened fire on man in the same area after he approached the fence.

Netanyahu has been under pressure to act forcefully from Israeli communities living near Gaza who have had their farms burned by cans of lit petrol attached to balloons and kites during the rallies, and from members of his own government, with Lieberman at the forefront.

Israeli cabinet figures also criticised a decision to partially lift the blockade on Gaza this month to allow in shipments of fuel as well as $15m (£12m) in Qatari aid as backpay for thousands of unpaid Palestinian civil servants.

Netanyahu had previously defended his decision to allow the cash into Gaza as a way to avert an “unnecessary war” and avert a humanitarian disaster. He also claimed on Wednesday Hamas rulers “begged for a ceasefire”.

Hamas has portrayed the truce as a victory, while a few hundred Israelis living in the country’s south blocked roads and burned tyres on Tuesday night in protest at the agreement.

Lieberman also said his party was leaving Netanyahu’s coalition, which leaves the premier with a one-seat majority in parliament.

“We should agree on a date for elections as early as possible,” he said later.

Elections are not due until November 2019, but Lieberman’s resignation increases the likelihood of an earlier vote which he might contest.

A Soviet-born security hardliner, Lieberman heads the Yisrael Beitenu party, which holds five seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.