JERUSALEM — An Israeli general who led troops along the Lebanese border resigned yesterday after an army inquiry faulted him for failing to prevent the capture of two soldiers that ignited 34 days of fighting with Hezbollah militias.

Brigadier General Gal Hirsch’s resignation letter, the latest in a series of recriminations here over the inconclusive end of the summer war, was expected to raise the pressure on Israel’s military chief of staff to step down.

Rather than accept sole responsibility for the incident, Mr. Hirsch insisted that “senior echelons” should share blame for Israel’s failures.

“Placing field commanders at the focus of the inquiry is a grave error” that “causes me pain,” he wrote.”This is not the way to treat a commander.”

Israelis, who are used to clear-cut military victories, say that the campaign in Lebanon was poorly planned and executed and that leaders should be held accountable. Israel failed to halt Hezbollah rocket fire into its northern cities, and the soldiers captured in a July 12 cross-border raid are still missing.

Since the fighting ended August 14, a group of disgruntled reserve soldiers has been demanding the resignations of Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and senior officers including the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz.

Until yesterday, just one general, Udi Adam, had resigned under criticism for his war-time role.

Calls for General Halutz to quit also have come from members of Mr. Olmert’s government and from Parliament.

Mr. Olmert, who is scheduled to meet with President Bush today in Washington, has been emphasizing Israel’s gains from the war. Visiting northern Israel last month, he noted that Hezbollah’s positions had been pushed back from the border, declaring: “Hezbollah does not threaten Israel and will not threaten it in the future.”

But some political analysts here say they believe a high-level military shake-up is coming.

“I have a feeling that the government and Halutz know this and are waiting for a decent interval in order to deny Hezbollah another opportunity to declare a victory over Israel,” an army reserve major and senior fellow at the Shalem Center, an academic research institute in Jerusalem, Michael Oren, said.

“For now, it is difficult for Olmert on the one hand to say we won the war and on the other hand to accept Dan Halutz’s resignation for having lost the war,”Mr. Oren said.

The army inquiry led by reservist General Doron Almog said Mr. Hirsch’s Galilee Brigades failed to prepare adequately for the scenario of a Hezbollah attack aimed at seizing soldiers. The officer resigned hours before yesterday’s release of General Almog’s report, which recommended that Mr. Hirsch be fired.

Mr. Hirsch said he was quitting because the army had not defended him against severe public criticism.

The 42-year-old former paratrooper exemplifies Israelis’ conflicted feelings about the war.

He was considered a rising star in the military and a candidate to become the next chief of staff. Fellow officers describe him as brilliant, charismatic, and arrogant. They credit him with predicting the war, if not the exact provocation that would start it, and performing well after it started. Several generals lobbied against his dismissal.

General Halutz, who contested some of the inquiry’s findings, has not accepted Mr. Hirsch’s resignation. But Israeli newspapers said Mr. Hirsch refused his commander’s request to withdraw it.

In Washington, Messrs. Olmert and Bush are to discuss Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian Arabs. On the eve of those talks, Arab League officials meeting in Egypt called yesterday for a peace conference embracing leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Arab territories, Arab nations, and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs the Palestinian Authority, endorsed the statement, saying for the first time that it was willing to hold peace talks with Israel.

A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, Mark Regev, said Hamas could not be a party to talks with Israel unless it met Western governments’ conditions that it recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by existing Israeli-Palestinian Arab agreements.