Late night update

Hello MEE readers, 

Minister Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, has announced his exit from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency wartime government. 

His departure will not endanger the parliamentary majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat Knesset held by the ruling right-wing coalition. 

Just after Gantz's announcement, far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded a seat on the war cabinet in place of Gantz.

"The time has come to make brave decisions," Ben-Gvir said in a post to X social media that included a copy of his official demand. 

Meanwhile, Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid hails Benny Gantz's exit, saying the "decision to leave the failed government is important and correct".

Other updates from Sunday include: 

• Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich hit out against Benny Gantz following his resignation from Israel’s war cabinet by stating in a post on X, “There is no act less stately than withdrawing from the government during a war.”

• Israel's Gaza Division Commander has announced that he is resigning from his post and retiring from the army

• Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said in a video posted on its Telegram channel on Sunday that three captives were killed, including a US citizen, during Israel's military operation in central Gaza

• Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner denied three Israelis were killed on Saturday during the operation

• Six Palestinians, including a child, were wounded during an attack by Israeli settlers protected by Israeli forces in the village of Urif, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank