A Palestinian woman washes up in front of a makeshift shelter in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip . AFP
"There is progress," one source told AFP, adding that mediators had obtained from Israel a "promise... to put in place a humanitarian protocol starting from this morning".
"Hamas has confirmed to Egyptian officials its commitment... to conducting the sixth exchange of prisoners on time, on Saturday, as soon as Israel honours its commitment," another source said.
On Wednesday, Israel threatened to launch a "new" war on Hamas and implement US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from the ravaged Gaza Strip if the group do not release captives this weekend.
The remarks by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz came shortly after Palestinian group Hamas said it would not bow down to US and Israeli "threats" over the release of captives under a fragile truce deal.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to salvage the ceasefire agreement that came into effect last month, a Palestinian source and a diplomat familiar with the talks told AFP, while Hamas said its top negotiator was in Cairo.
If fighting resumes, Katz said, "the new Gaza war... will not end without the defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages."
"It will also allow the realisation of US President Trump's vision for Gaza," he added.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem warned that captives would not be released without Israeli compliance with the deal.
"Our position is clear, and we will not accept the language of American and Israeli threats," said Qassem, after Netanyahu threatened to "resume intense fighting" if captives were not released by Saturday.
Hamas has insisted it remained "committed to the ceasefire" and said its chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya was in Cairo on Wednesday for meetings and to monitor "the implementation of the ceasefire agreement".
Egypt's Al-Qahera News, citing an Egyptian official, said that mediators in Cairo and Doha were "intensifying their diplomatic efforts in an attempt to save the Gaza ceasefire agreement".
UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Hamas to proceed with the planned release and "avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza".
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the captive-prisoner swaps, urged the parties to maintain the ceasefire.
"Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on it," including "all of the remaining hostages" and Gazans who "need respite from violence and access to life-saving humanitarian aid", the ICRC said.
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