Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached, after his office had said earlier there were last-minute snags in finalising the ceasefire.

Late on Thursday, a vocal member of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition took a stand against a cease-fire deal. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hard-line national security minister, threatened to resign and remove his party from the Israeli government if the cabinet voted to approve the provisional deal, saying that it would leave Hamas in power in Gaza.