The armed wing of Hamas on Saturday denied knowing the whereabouts of a soldier who Israel says was abducted in the Gaza Strip. Egypt's foreign ministry said new peace talks would start on Sunday despite Israel's refusal to send an envoy.

Israel said Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, who went missing on Friday, was abducted during an attack by Hamas militants in which two other soldiers were killed.

“Out of a tunnel access point or several, terrorists came out of the ground. At least one was a suicide terrorist who detonated himself. There was an exchange of fire,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman. “... The initial indication suggests that a soldier has been abducted by terrorists during the incident."

But a statement by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had not been in contact with its militants operating in the southern Gaza Strip where Goldin went missing.

“We have lost contact with the group of fighters that took part in the ambush and we believe they were all killed in the (Israeli) bombardment. Assuming that they managed to seize the soldier during combat, we assess that he was also killed in the incident,” the statement said.

The Israeli army on Saturday informed the Palestinian residents of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza that it was "safe" to return to their homes, as witnesses said troops were seen withdrawing from the area. It was the first time troops had been seen pulling back since the start of the 26-day conflict, which has so far claimed more than 1,660 Palestinian lives and forced up to a quarter of the territory's population into exile.

Since the start of hostilities on July 8, when Israel launched operations to halt Hamas rocket fire into Israel with air and naval bombardments, sixty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed and Hamas rockets have killed three civilians in Israel. A ground offensive including tanks and infantry pushed into the Gaza Strip, a territory of 1.8 million people, on July 17.

Egypt was seeking on Saturday to launch new efforts for a truce, with a Palestinian delegation due to fly to Cairo for new negotiations that would include Hamas's demand that Egypt ease its blockade of Gaza.

Israel, however, said it would not send its envoys to the talks, accusing Hamas of having no intention of negotiating.

"Hamas is hoodwinking the international community again and again," an Israeli official told Reuters. "It is not interested in an accommodation [with Israel]."

"They (Hamas) cannot be trusted to keep their word," Deputy Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel's Channel Two television. "They cannot stop because, for them, a ceasefire at this stage – whether by arrangement or not by arrangement – would mean acknowledging the worst possible defeat."

Journalist Ashraf Khalil tells FRANCE 24 that Hamas will likely be unwilling to agree to a prolonged ceasefire without progress on its stated demands, namely the lifting of the Israeli and Egyptian blockades.

"Hamas has stated multiple times that they're not going to stop firing unless they get something concrete from the Israelis and from the Egyptians that changes the nature of daily life in Gaza," Khalil said.

A senior Egyptian foreign ministry official said the talks would begin on Sunday nevertheless, and that Cairo “expects the two sides to cease fire before the launch of negotiations”.

Truncated truce

Friday's ceasefire lasted only about 90 minutes, with both sides blaming the other for its failure.

The United Nations and US officials blamed Hamas for breaking the truce.

The planned 72-hour break in fighting announced by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hours before it was due to take effect early on Friday was the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting.

The Israeli soldier's alleged abduction has drawn widespread criticism, with US President Barack Obama calling for his release "as soon as possible".

Kerry said he had asked Qatar, which has close ties to Hamas, as well as Turkey to help secure the soldier's release.

“We have urged them, implored them, to use their influence to do whatever they can to get that soldier returned,” a senior State Department official told reporters travelling with Kerry. “Absent that, the risk of this continuing to escalate, leading to further loss of life, is very high.”

Obama also predicted it would be tough to negotiate a new truce agreement following Friday's events.

“I think it’s going to be very hard to put a ceasefire back together again if Israelis and the international community can’t feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a ceasefire commitment,” he told a White House news conference.

Obama also said that more needed to be done to protect Palestinian civilians.

Israeli officials had long voiced concern that militants would try to capture a soldier or an Israeli civilian. In 2011, Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier snatched by Hamas five years earlier.

Amid strong public support in Israel for the Gaza campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had faced intense pressure from abroad to wind down the conflict.

International calls for an end to the bloodshed intensified after shelling that killed 15 people sheltering in a UN-run school in Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp on Wednesday.

Hamas – which is increasingly isolated by Arab states concerned about the rise of Islamist militancy in the region – has vowed to keep fighting unless Israel lifts its blockade on Gaza.

The Islamist group also wants Egypt's military leadership, which distrusts Hamas, to ease its restrictions on the Rafah crossing into Gaza.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)