GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, July 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Hamas official said Sunday the Palestinian group was ready to discuss a hostage release deal with Israel even without a "complete" ceasefire.

The apparent easing of Hamas's position comes as long-stalled diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release have gathered pace with a new proposal and meetings hosted by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

"Hamas had previously required that Israel agree to a complete and permanent ceasefire," the top official told AFP as the war entered its 10th month.

But mediators have offered assurances "that as long as the... negotiations continued, the ceasefire would continue", said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israel, which vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the group's October 7 attack that sparked the war, has repeatedly rejected demands for a permanent ceasefire.

US President Joe Biden announced a plan in late May that included an initial six-week truce and the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Talks quickly stalled but a US official said Thursday that a new text from Hamas "moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal".

Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said late Saturday that Cairo was "hosting Israeli and American delegations" and mediators were in contact with Hamas amid "intensive Egyptian meetings this week with all parties".

In Israel, anti-government protesters demanding a hostage release deal blocked roads in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv on a nationwide "disruption day" from 6:29 am, the time Hamas launched their attack on October 7.

Data scientist Yoni Peleg, 34, said protesters were crying "out for help... to end the war" and pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The Hamas seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.

Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Israel has said it would send a delegation to continue talks with Qatari mediators, though a government spokesman said Friday there were still "gaps" with Hamas.

An official with knowledge of the mediation said US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns would also go to Qatar this week.

If full negotiations start, Hamas expects them to take between two to three weeks, according to the official from the Islamist movement.

- Schools hit -

The fighting and bombardment in Gaza raged on unabated, with witnesses reporting strikes and shelling in the central Bureij refugee camp, the far-southern Rafah city and elsewhere.

The Palestine Red Crescent said two children were among six dead when a house in central Gaza was hit, and paramedics reported nine fatalities in two strikes on Gaza City in the north of the coastal territory.

An AFP correspondent said Israeli drones were firing in Gaza City's Shujaiya district, which has seen intense battles for nearly two weeks.

The Israeli military said that in Shujaiya, its troops killed "several" Hamas and dismantled Hamas infrastructure.

The military issued on Sunday an evacuation order for a nearby area of Gaza City. Similar orders in the past have preceded military incursions.

Israeli forces were also "conducting operations" in Rafah and around the municipality building in nearby Khan Yunis, which according to the military was being used by Hamas fighters.

The latest Gaza health ministry toll includes 16 people killed Saturday in a strike on a UN-run school turned shelter in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel's military said the school had been used by Hamas.

Another strike Sunday on a church-run school in Gaza City killed at least four people, said the civil defence agency.

Israel's military confirmed the strike "in the area of" Holy Family School, which it said served as a hideout.

- Plea for 'caution' -

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, fired rocket salvoes at northern Israel in the latest cross-border clashes that have sparked fears of a full-scale war.

Since the Gaza war began, Israeli forces and Hezbollah have exchanged almost daily cross-border fire, with attacks and rhetoric escalating in recent weeks.

Israel on Saturday struck deep inside eastern Lebanon, killing a Hezbollah operative.

Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli army base west of Tiberias "in response to the... assassination" carried out the day before, later claiming more barrages of rockets.

Israeli officials reported four people wounded by shrapnel, including a 31-year-old man who was "in serious and stable condition", according to the Galilee Medical Center.

Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in his first telephone conversation with Netanyahu on Sunday, said the border clashes were "concerning" and urged all sides to exercise "caution".

A spokesperson for Starmer said he also "set out the clear and urgent need for a ceasefire" in Gaza as well as hostage release and "an immediate increase" in aid into the besieged territory.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, meeting troops in the annexed Golan Heights, said "we continue to fight" even if a deal with Hamas is reached.

"I very much hope that we will be able to reach it", Gallant said, according to a statement from his office.