A ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestine could be in sight, official sources have said.

Mediators are meeting to try and find an agreement to end the conflict which has killed over 45,000 Palestinians and free the remaining Israeli hostages.

Hamas officials have said a deal is possible but only if Israel doesn't set new conditions.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Sky Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said he believes we are “inching” towards a ceasefire.

"Progressing in the right direction"

“It does seem as though it's progressing in the right direction, pretty slowly but steadily getting there,” he said.

Mr Bunkall said “little leaking”, particularly into Israeli media, is one of the reasons the details of a ceasefire are not more widely known.

“There's been reports about what this deal might look like in various Arab outlets, but very little in Israeli media,” he said.

“So, on the one hand, that makes it quite hard to judge exactly where we are.”

Staying quiet

Mr Bunkall said that even when speaking to his contacts in the Israeli Government, they are “staying pretty quiet about it”.

“We should read into that [as] actually a bit of a positive side to it,” he said.

“It seems like nobody really wants to sort of do their talking in public and briefing journalists on it, which is a sign, I would say, that they are taking it seriously, and that they feel that if they say the wrong thing in public, the other side could get their backs up, and it could scupper any deal.

Mr Bunkall said he does not believe reports that a deal could be “hours away” but if he had to guess, he thinks it would be at the “turn of the next year”.

Palestinian man inspects his destroyed factory by Israeli air strike. Photo: Ahmed Zakot / SOPA Images/Sipa USA