EFFORTS are being intensified to broker a new ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, a senior Hamas official said today.

A senior Hamas source told the BBC that mediators were involved in “intensive contacts aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement.”

But he said Hamas has not received any new proposals from the Israelis.

The remarks followed comments from US President Donald Trump on Wednesday who said “great progress” was being made on Gaza since a pause in Israeli attacks on Iran.

Mr Trump said his envoy Steve Witkoff believed that an agreement between the two warring sides in Gaza was “very close.”

The US president told reporters he thought “great progress was being made on Gaza, I think because of this attack that we made,” referring to the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities carried out on Sunday.

He added: “I think we’re going to have some very good news.”

But an Israeli official told the Haaretz newspaper that there has been no progress in the negotiations and that major disagreements remain unresolved.

Meanwhile, the Israelis killed at least 51 Palestinians today in northern, central and southern Gaza.

In northern Gaza, medics at al-Shifa Hospital reported five Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air strike on a school that was sheltering displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, west of Gaza City.

In the central Gaza Nuseirat refugee camp, Israeli forces again killed one and wounded several other Palestinians waiting for aid near Netzarim junction.

In the south, medics at Nasser Hospital reported five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

Another source at the same hospital said an Israeli drone strike on another tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi killed one person dead and several others injured.

An Israeli drone strike on a house west of Khan Younis also killed one person, the Nasser Medical Complex has said.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have issued a joint statement saying they have instructed the Israeli military to present a plan to stop Hamas from “seizing” aid in Gaza, according to reports in several Israeli media outlets.

This came day’s after Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly threatened to quit the government if immediate action was not taken to prevent aid from reaching Hamas, according to The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post.

Israel’s blockade means aid is currently only being distributed by the US company the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, from heavily guarded centres in the far south of the strip. Hundreds of Palestinians have been gunned down by the Israeli army while trying to access it.