Hamas said earlier this week it was mulling proposals drawn up by mediators in Paris for a second truce nearly four months after the war began.

While a November pause to the fighting lasted a week, the latest accord aims to pave the way for an initial six-week halt to the fighting.

Over that period Israel will release between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners who are not deemed high-security detainees, in exchange for 35 to 40 captives held in Gaza, the Hamas source close to Egyptian and Qatari mediators said.

Only "women, children and sick men over 60" who are captive in Gaza will be freed at this stage, the Hamas source told AFP, declining to be named given the sensitivity of the issue.

Palestinian militants seized about 250 captives during the Hamas operation against Israel on 7 October.

Israel says 132 of the captives remain in Gaza.

At least 29 captives have been killed by Israeli bombardment on the strip.

Relentless bombardment by Israel and a ground invasion has killed at least 26,900 people in Gaza since then, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The war has displaced the vast majority of Gaza's population of 2.4 million and prompted the United Nations to warn famine is imminent.

Under the new agreement, aid deliveries would be boosted with the entry of 200 to 300 trucks per day.

"The first stage includes negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces and enabling the return of displaced people to Gaza (City) and the north of the strip," the source said.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ruled out pulling Israel's armed forces from Gaza.

If the ceasefire lasts, a second stage would see Israeli reservist soldiers released from captivity in exchange for an undefined number of Palestinian prisoners

Before the start of the war on Gaza, Israel held more than 6,000 Palestinians in its jails under harsh conditions.

Since 7 October, Israel arrested more than 6,300 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank and hundreds of civilians during its military operations in Gaza.

Other soldiers and officers would subsequently be freed, the source said, once more in tandem with the release of Palestinians held in Israel.

The last issues addressed by the deal pertain to an exchange of bodies by the two sides, as well as the control of Gaza border crossings and rebuilding the shattered territory.

Egypt and Qatar are set to serve as mediators, in coordination with the United States and France, the Hamas source added.