Israeli troops 'withdraw from Gaza' as 72-hour ceasefire begins - live updates

Lady Warsi, the senior Foreign Office minister, has resigned from the government in protest at its policy on Gaza, a decision that Downing Street says it is checking.

Warsi said on her Twitter account on Tuesday: “With deep regret I have this morning written to the prime minister and tendered my resignation. I can no longer support government policy on Gaza”.

She has been known to be unhappy at the failure of the prime minister to unequivocally condemn Israel’s incursion into Gaza or the death toll.

On Monday, the prime minister’s spokesman refused to say if Israel was behaving disproportionately or doing enough to prevent civilian casualties.

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Cameron is due to fly to Portugal on Tuesday morning to rejoin his family on holiday after attending the first world war commemorations in France and Belgium.

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There was a high-level campaign to remove Warsi from the government in last month’s reshuffle, particularly after she appeared on ITV’s The Agenda and posed with a mock front page about the “Eton Mess” at the top of the government.

Warsi is known to be keeping a diary and there have been fears she will publish it before the election in an effort to reveal the upper-class coterie in Cameron’s inner circle.

She was removed as Conservative party co-chair and then, in a battle with No 10, was given the title of senior foreign office minister.

Her opponents will claim her resignation on a matter of principle is a cynical act, but her supporters will say Cameron’s position on Israel has been over-supportive, repeatedly blaming Hamas for the conflict and the breakdown of successive ceasefires. Ironically, Warsi’s decision to quit comes as a three-day ceasefire has been agreed, and both sides are set to enter talks in Cairo.