International efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza gathered pace on Thursday amid reports that Hamas had predicted a ceasefire could be agreed in the coming days and Israel's security cabinet would be voting on a proposal to halt attacks within 24 hours.
Israeli leaders convened Thursday to consider halting a Gaza offensive, a day after US President Joe Biden called for a de-escalation of the fiercest hostilities in years.
Biden on Wednesday urged Netanyahu to seek "de-escalation" while a Hamas political official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said he believed a ceasefire could be reached "within a day or two".
A senior Hamas official told AFP: "We expect a return to calm in the coming hours, or tomorrow, but it depends on the cessation of the aggression of the occupation forces in Gaza and Jerusalem."
"But there is nothing definitive for the moment," added the source, indicating that Qatar, an emirate that hosts Haniyeh and sends financial aid to Gaza, was at the heart of "intense" negotiations.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that UN Middle East Envoy Tor Wennesland is in Qatar, adding: “We are actively engaged with all the relevant parties for an immediate ceasefire.”
With Cairo mediating between the sides, an Egyptian security source said they had agreed in principle to a ceasefire but details needed to be worked out.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet, public broadcaster Kan said it would vote on a proposal to halt attacks unilaterally within 24 hours.
There was no immediate Israeli confirmation of the Kan report. Rocket attacks by Hamas and allied Islamic Jihad resumed after an eight-hour pause on Thursday, as Israel continued shelling that it said aimed to destroy the factions' military capabilities and deter them from future confrontation after the current conflict.
Palestinian sources said Hamas and Islamic Jihad wanted any truce to be mutually binding and simultaneous, but Kan said Israel wanted to cease fire on its own terms.
Health officials in Gaza say more than 230 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, have been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel says it has killed at least 160 combatants in Gaza.
Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that have caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.
Biden discussed Gaza with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday and the White House said reports of moves towards a ceasefire were "encouraging".
Press secretary Jen Psaki said Washington's “strategic approach" remains "to communicate directly, stay closely interlocked with the Israelis, with partners on the ground, to do everything we can to bring an end to the conflict”.
She added that the US has “held more than 80 engagements with senior leaders in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and across the region”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "indirect talks" with Hamas were essential to advancing efforts toward an end of hostilities. "Of course Hamas has to be included, because without Hamas there will be no ceasefire," Merkel said, who also spoke to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, when they agreed on the need "for a speedy ceasefire".
Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, speaking earlier near Tel Aviv, expressed Germany's "solidarity" with Israel but also called for an end to the fighting.
"Israel has the right to defend itself against this massive and unacceptable attack," Maas said of the rockets Hamas first fired on May 10, following violent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
"The number of victims is rising every day and this greatly concerns us."
Israel carried out over a dozen air strikes on Gaza after midnight, targeting what it said was a weapons storage unit in the home of a Hamas official, and military infrastructure in the homes of other commanders from the group.
Hamas-run radio said a woman was killed and four children wounded in one attack on Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Witnesses said several main roads were also damaged in the air strikes.
Nearly 450 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or badly damaged, including six hospitals and nine health centres, the United Nations humanitarian agency has said. More than 52,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza, which is blockaded by Israel and Egypt.
Israelis living in areas frequently targeted by rocket fire began their workday on Thursday without the usual sound of warning sirens. But after an eight-hour break, the sirens blared again in southern Israel.
>> Jerusalem residents describe their fears as Gaza conflict rages
Israel said some 4,000 rockets have been launched at it from Gaza, some falling short and others shot down by its Iron Dome air defences.
Civilians on both sides are exhausted by fear and grief, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. "People in Gaza and Israel urgently need respite from non-stop hostilities," said Fabrizio Carboni, regional director for the Middle East.
The UN General Assembly was due to meet on the conflict on Thursday but it was not expected to take action.
The US mission said Wednesday it would not support a French call for a resolution in the 15-member UN Security Council, saying it believed such actions would undermine efforts to de-escalate violence.
Any ceasefire is unlikely to address the fundamental issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An international peace process aimed at creating a Palestinian state free of Israeli occupation and guaranteeing Israel's security has been frozen since 2014.
Hamas, regarded by the West as a terrorist organisation, has not been part of the mainstream Palestine Liberation Organization's engagement with Israel, which led to interim peace deals in the 1990s and the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the occupied West Bank.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
