Fighting in Gaza raged with scores reported killed overnight, after mediator Qatar said Hamas had given its “initial” support to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal that would pause the conflict in the besieged enclave.

After a truce proposal agreed with Israeli negotiators was presented to Hamas a day earlier, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said there were hopes of “good news” about a fresh pause to the fighting “in the next couple of weeks”.

Ansari said a truce plan thrashed out with Israeli negotiators by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators in Paris earlier this week had received a “positive” initial response from Hamas.

“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side,” he said.

But a source close to Hamas told AFP: “There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet — the factions have important observations — and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true.”

A Hamas source said the group had been presented with a three-stage plan which would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into Gaza.

The pause would also see the release of “women, children and sick men over 60” among the Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.