Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 18 people overnight as Israel and Hamas appeared to be coming closer to a ceasefire deal

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has reacted to the statement earlier by far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that he will quit the government if a ceasefire and hostage release deal is agreed with Hamas.

Ben-Gvir claimed in his statement that “through our political power, we have managed to prevent this deal from happening, time after time.” [See 9.13 GMT]

For a year I’ve been saying “We [Israel] aren’t making a deal to release the hostages for political reasons” and everyone tells me that it can’t be, and it is shocking, and how could I say such a thing. Today Ben-Gvir released a video and told, to the camera, without blinking, the terrible truth.