Gaza truce holds into second day as stage set for Cairo talks

A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian factions including Hamas appeared to hold into a second day on Wednesday, ahead of negotiations over a more durable end to a bloody month of fighting in Gaza.

Guns fell silent and Israeli troops withdrew on Tuesday after 29 days of fighting as part of a planned 72-hour cessation of violence. It brought to a end, temporarily at first, a conflict that has killed at least 1,867 Palestinians — most of them civilians, and many of them young — and 67 people in Israel.

Delegations from both sides were in Cairo on Wednesday in a bid to have the truce extended, with Egyptian mediators preparing for days of shuttle diplomacy to hammer out a deal.

Palestinian and Israeli officials have both confirmed that they had sent small delegations to the talks.

Hamas is expected to call for an internationally funded reconstruction of shell-ravaged Gaza. A month of air strikes have left the besieged enclave reeling economically, with estimates that the war has cost Gaza $6 billion, including lost output, infrastructure and homes destroyed. Even before the latest escalation of violence, the territory’s economy had been weakened by a years-long blockade.

The negotiations follow what has become the longest lull in fighting since missile strikes began on July 8.

Just minutes before the truce took hold, sirens wailed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Hamas fired 16 rockets over the border, while Israeli warplanes carried out at least five strikes on Gaza.

But at 8 a.m. local time, both sides silenced the guns.

Meanwhile Israeli ground troops fell back from the Beit Hanoun area and southern Rafah, while Palestinians returned to their homes to inspect the damage.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, earlier said Israeli troops would "be redeployed in defensive positions outside the Gaza Strip and we will maintain those defensive positions."

He added that the army had destroyed the last of 32 tunnels used by Palestinian fighters to infiltrate Israel prior to the cease-fire.

Three similar cease-fire agreements have collapsed since the violence began. A day before the latest peace effort, Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza after a patchy and limited seven-hour humanitarian truce ended, with one attack killing two people and wounding 16.

But for now, the latest truce appears to be holding. Both Hamas and Israel have pledged to uphold its terms and warned the other against violating it.

"The deal is that we will have a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire," Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader, told Al Jazeera, adding that he hoped Israel could "control itself."

"During those 72 hours there will be a delegation from Israel coming to Cairo. There will be indirect negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli sides for a cease-fire and the lift of a siege on Gaza and other Palestinian demands."

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, told Al Jazeera that Israel was ready to discuss all of the issues on the table, but that it still had concerns.

"Our goals in this operation have always been ultimately defensive," Regev said.

"If that goal of protecting our people from the rockets and the death squads can be done diplomatically, through this Egyptian agreement, then wonderful. We'll be looking very closely to ensure that Hamas does in fact ... live up to its obligations." 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has become an increasingly fierce critic of the failure of Israel to safeguard the lives of Gazan civilians and the striking of three U.N. schools with missiles, urged "utmost restraint" after the truce was announced.

He called on both sides to "commence, as soon as possible, talks in Cairo on a durable ceasefire and the underlying issues," his office said hours after the announcement was made.

In a separate development, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said there was "clear evidence" of war crimes by Israel during the offensive as he met International Criminal Court prosecutors on Tuesday to push for an investigation.

Malki visited The Hague shortly after the truce began.

Last week, the U.N. launched an inquiry into human rights violations and crimes alleged to have been committed by Israel during its offensive, given the far higher toll of civilian deaths and destruction on the Palestinian side.

Al Jazeera and wire services