Gaza - Hopes mounted on Tuesday that dozens of hostages seized by Hamas could be released from war-torn Gaza, after the group's leader and key mediator Qatar both said a truce agreement with Israel was in sight.

"We are close to reaching a deal on a truce," Hamas' senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh said, according to a statement sent by his office to AFP, after US President Joe Biden indicated an accord was on the cards on Monday.

In Qatar, foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told reporters: "We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement."

"We're very optimistic, very hopeful," he added.

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Hopes of a breakthrough have been mounting since Qatar on Sunday said only "minor" practical issues remained to secure a deal. Speculation grew further when the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is often involved in prisoner exchanges and hostage releases, said on Monday that its president had met Haniyeh in Qatar.

Despite the efforts towards a truce, fighting raged on in Gaza's bloodiest ever war, sparked by the October 7 attack in which Israel says Hamas gunmen killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

In retaliation, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. According to Gazan authorities, the siege has killed more than 13,300 people, thousands of them children.

The tentative agreement would include a five-day truce, comprised of a complete ceasefire on the ground and an end to Israeli air operations over Gaza, except in the north, where they would only halt for six hours daily.

Under the deal, which the sources said could yet change, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel.

In exchange, some 300 Palestinians would be freed from Israeli jails, among them women and minors.

An agreement could bring some respite for Gazans who have endured more than six weeks under Israel bombardment and an expanding ground offensive.

Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air strikes, and the territory is under siege, with minimal food, water, and fuel allowed to enter.

According to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources, the proposed deal would also allow for up to 300 trucks of food and medical aid to enter Gaza.

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Israel has vowed to press ahead with its offensive, pledging to crush Hamas and ensure the hostages are released.

"We will not stop fighting until we bring our hostages home," Netanyahu declared after meeting relatives of those abducted.

Israel has been accused of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as the assault wages on. Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, a former apartheid state, accused Israel of war crimes and genocide in Gaza as he chaired an extraordinary summit of the BRICS group of nations on Tuesday.

In Lebanon, official media said two journalists from Al-Mayadeen television and two other civilians were killed in cross-border shelling in the south of the country.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strike, saying, "This attack proves once more that Israeli crimes know no limit and that (Israel's) aim is to silence the media who expose its crimes and its attacks."

Israel said only it was "looking into the details" of the incident.

Medics and patients have increasingly fallen victim as Israel expanded its operation across northern Gaza.

Gaza's health ministry said Israel had laid siege to and hit the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia on Monday, killing dozens.

Twenty-eight premature babies from Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, were taken to Egypt for treatment on Monday. Three others evacuated from Al-Shifa remain in southern Gaza, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Two died before the evacuation, the UN health agency added.

The Indonesian Hospital lies near Gaza's largest refugee camp Jabalia, which has been the scene of intense Israeli bombing in recent days.

The health ministry official said there were still about 400 patients inside the hospital, as well as 2,000 people seeking shelter.

Around 200 people were evacuated from the hospital on Monday and bussed to the relative safety of a hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

At the packed Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, an AFP reporter saw bloodied children being carried in and lying dazed on gurneys.

"We miraculously got out," said one man who said he escaped the Indonesian Hospital.

"We still have brothers there. I just can't..." he said, his voice trailing off.

Israel claims Hamas uses medical facilities to hide fighters and as bases for operations, making them legitimate military objectives, while insisting it does everything possible to limit harm to civilians.

But international criticism of Israel's conduct of the war has grown, with protests across the world, international agencies making accusations of war crimes, and some governments breaking diplomatic ties.

The World Health Organization said it was "appalled" by the strike on the Indonesian Hospital, calling it just one of 164 documented attacks on health facilities and workers since the war began.

"The world cannot stand silent while these hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair," it said.

The UN children's agency meanwhile warned that fuel shortages and worsening sanitation in Gaza were shaping up to be "a perfect storm for tragedy" through the spread of disease.

UNICEF said it was particularly concerned about an outbreak of cholera, which is usually transmitted through contaminated water or food, causing diarrhea and vomiting.