Israel’s government has agreed to back a deal with Hamas for the release of some hostages in Gaza and a temporary pause in the fighting.

The agreement involves swapping the hostages for Palestinian prisoners being detained in Israel.

The prime minister’s office says the deal involved the release of 50 women and children being held in Gaza by Hamas over a period of four days during which there will be a pause in the fighting.

It is the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since the conflict began on 7 October.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his special war cabinet earlier – followed by planned meetings of the broader security cabinet and then the full cabinet to discuss “the issue of the release of hostages”.

The various bodies are required to approve important government decisions.

For weeks, Qatar had been mediating talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip.

Israel says Hamas took 242 hostages during its attack on 7 October and killed 1,200 people.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 13,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel retaliated in an offensive that has devastated swathes of the territory and left hundreds of thousands displaced.

Among the hostages in Gaza are about 37 children, according to The Hostage and Missing Families Forum – a group set up to demand the return of those kidnapped by Hamas.

Up until now, Hamas has released four hostages, Israel has rescued one, and the bodies of two others were found near al Shifa hospital.

On the ground, Israeli troops have been battling Hamas militants as they expanded their operations across northern Gaza, where residents have been without electricity, water or access to humanitarian aid for weeks.

Tens of thousands of others have fled south through corridors announced by the military.

The frontline of the war, now in its seventh week, has shifted to the Jabaliya camp, a dense warren of concrete buildings near Gaza City.

Israel has been bombarding the area for weeks, and the military said Hamas fighters have regrouped there and in other eastern districts after being pushed out of much of Gaza City.

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