Negotiators were near to hammering out the final details of a on Wednesday after marathon talks in Qatar. US and Egyptian leaders promised to stay in close contact about a deal over the coming hours.

More than eight hours of talks in Doha had fuelled optimism. Officials from mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US as well as Israel and Hamas said in and release of hostages was closer than ever.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari earlier told a news conference that both sides were presented with a text and talks on the last details were under way.

But a senior Hamas official told late on Tuesday that the Palestinian group had not delivered its response yet because it was still waiting for Israel to submit maps showing how its forces would withdraw from Gaza.

US President Joe Biden, whose administration has been taking part alongside an envoy of President-elect Donald Trump, said a deal was close.

Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a phone call on Tuesday that both sides needed to show "flexibility" to get a deal over the line, according to a statement from Sisi's office.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went into a meeting with top security officials late Tuesday to discuss the deal, his office said, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the "ball is now in Hamas' court".

"If Hamas accepts, the deal is ready to be concluded and implemented," he said.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Al Ansari said negotiations were in their "final stages" and mediators were hopeful they would lead "very soon to an agreement".

However, he cautioned that "until there is an announcement... we shouldn't be over-excited".

Hamas said the talks had reached the final steps and it hoped this round of negotiations would lead to a deal.

An Israeli official said talks had reached a critical phase although some details needed to be worked out: "We are close, we are not there yet."

Visiting Rome, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday he believed a majority of Israel's coalition government would support a Gaza deal if one is finally agreed, despite vocal opposition from hardline nationalist parties in the coalition.

If successful, the phased ceasefire — capping over a year of start-and-stop talks — could halt fighting that decimated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, made most of the enclave's population homeless and is still killing dozens a day.

That in turn could ease tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has fuelled conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who gave a speech in Washington outlining a vision for governing the Palestinian territories after the war, said it was up to Hamas to accept a deal that was already set for implementation.

the deadliest in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an tally of official Israeli figures.

On that day, militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures the UN considers reliable.

"The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started," Biden said on Monday.

Despite the efforts to reach a ceasefire, new Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 15 people on Tuesday in attacks on Deir Al Balah and Rafah, medics said.

Meanwhile, the UN said it was busy preparing to expand humanitarian assistance to Gaza under a potential ceasefire but uncertainty around border access and security remained obstacles.