Hopes rose for truce and hostage release deal

Hopes rose for a long-sought truce and hostage release deal after almost seven months of war between Palestinian Hamas militants and Israel in Gaza.

Washington's top diplomat said he was "hopeful" Hamas would accept the offer, which his British counterpart said could see the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Negotiators from Hamas were due in Egypt, a mediator in the process along with the United States and Qatar.

For months they have been trying to broker a new agreement between the combatants, the first since a one-week truce in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Diplomacy in the past few days appeared to suggest a new push to halt the fighting.

The war has brought Gaza to the brink of famine, United Nations and humanitarian aid groups say, while reducing much of the territory to rubble and raising fears of a wider regional conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh that the proposal before Hamas is "extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel."

He urged the group to "decide quickly", saying: "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."

Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war.

A senior Hamas official said the group had no "major issues" with the latest truce plan.

Away from the chandeliered WEF meeting hall, southern Gaza's Rafah city was pounded by air strikes overnight.

The majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have sought refuge in Rafah near the border with Egypt.

Medics and the Civil Defence agency said at least 22 people were killed in the city.

A crowd of grief-stricken relatives jostled over the dead, shrouded in white, at the city's Al-Najjar hospital.