Israel’s most senior soldier resigned dramatically last night in an apparent acknowledgement of failures in last summer’s war in Lebanon.

A military spokeswoman said that Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, had told Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, and Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, that he was quitting “as the investigations have run their course”.

He was referring to a series of inquiries into last year’s war, which was sparked by an incursion into Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah fighters, who captured two soldiers and killed three.

“With the echoes of battle having faded, I have decided to act on my responsibility,” the spokeswoman quoted General Halutz as saying in his resignation letter.

Dan Shomron, a retired Israeli general, recently concluded his investigation into the execution of the 34-day war. A government-appointed committee of inquiry is separately looking into the conduct of Mr Olmert and Mr Peretz.

The general’s report, which was partly released last month, criticised Israeli military commanders for poor organisation during the war but stopped short of calling for General Halutz’s resignation.

Yesterday Mr Shomron told members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, that the war had been conducted with no clear objective. He added that the threat of rockets being fired at Israel from southern Lebanon remained as it was before the war.

Israel mounted a largescale air and land offensive and the fighting left more than 1,000 people dead. Most of the victims were Lebanese civilians. Of the 144 Israelis who were killed, most were soldiers.

Unicef said that about a third of the Lebanese victims were children. Israel claimed that 600 Hezbollah fighters were killed during the war but that figure was not substantiated. Hezbollah acknowledged 70 dead.

Israel failed to achieve its two military goals: to bring home the captured soldiers and to defeat Hezbollah. General Halutz had been under pressure ever since to resign.

The Lebanon war’s outcome was deeply unpopular in Israel, forcing Mr Olmert to set up an inquiry. Since the conflict ended on August 14, after 34 days of fighting, the Prime Minister’s ratings have plummeted. Israeli state radio reported last night that Mr Olmert had asked the commander of the Israel Defence Forces to remain in office until the work of the inquiry was concluded officially.

But General Halutz said in his resignation letter that he was taking full responsibility for the fiasco.

“For me the concept of responsibility is everything,” he wrote, according to Army Radio. General Halutz served less than two years in the job, having become Chief of Staff in June 2005 just before Israel began a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

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