Israeli retaliatory airstrikes

Israel said on Saturday that its warplanes had attacked more than 30 sites in the Gaza Strip since midnight local time, a day after an Egyptian-brokered 72-hour ceasefire ended.

Medical officials in Gaza said at least five Palestinians were killed in the attacks, with one official saying that senior Hamas official Moaaz Zaid was among the dead.

Zaid was killed along with two others in a strike on the al-Qassam mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Ashraf al-Kidra said.

The two sides resumed hostilities on Friday as the ceasefire came to an end. Israel accused the militant Islamist group Hamas of firing several rockets at the Jewish state about four hours before the truce expired at 8 am (0500 GMT), to which it responded with retaliatory airstrikes.

Gaza militants fired six more rockets at towns in Israel's south on Saturday, causing no damage or injuries, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. The Israeli army says more than 70 have been fired since the truce expired.

Two people were injured in Israel on Friday by mortar fire from Gaza, police said.

Irreconcilable demands

The militants in Gaza had warned they would resume fighting after the ceasefire expired, unless there was a deal to ease an eight-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent weapons being imported into the Palestinian territory, and wants militants to disarm before it is lifted - a demand Hamas has dismissed.

United Nations and Palestinian officials say around 1,900 Gazans, most of them civilians, have died since Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip on July 8. Sixty-seven people have been killed on the Israeli side, including three civilians from rocket fire.

Israel says its military operation aimed to stop rocket fire from Gaza and to destroy tunnels used by militants for cross-border attacks. It withdrew its ground troops and armor from the enclave on Tuesday after saying it had destroyed more than 30 of the tunnels.

Faltering ceasefire efforts

Egypt, helped by American and European mediators, was expected on Saturday to continue its efforts to establish a longer ceasefire to allow negotiations to take place.

A delegation of Palestinian negotiators has remained in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, following the collapse of talks on Thursday on extending the ceasefire . The head of the delegation, Azzam al-Ahmad, said the delegation would stay in Egypt until it reached an agreement that "ensures" the rights of the Palestinian people.

The Israeli delegation to the Cairo talks left Egypt on Friday morning, with Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev saying there would "not be negotiations under fire."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the resumption of violence in the Gaza Strip, urging the parties "not to resort to further military action that can only exacerbate the already appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza."

tj/ipj (Reuters, dpa, AP)