The Zionist entity announced on Friday an end to a three-day Gaza truce only hours after it began, saying it fears one of its soldiers was captured by Palestinian resistance.

The Zionist entity announced on Friday an end to a three-day Gaza truce only hours after it began, saying it fears one of its soldiers was captured by Palestinian resistance.

Israel declared an end to a three-day Gaza truce only hours after it began Friday, saying it fears one of its soldiers was captured, jeopardising world efforts for a durable ceasefire.

Intensive shelling killed dozens of people in southern Gaza hours into the short-lived truce, with resistance movement, Hamas accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire.

The skies over Gaza had initially fallen silent after the humanitarian truce announced overnight by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the longest of several agreed since the conflict broke out on July 7.

Starting from 0500 GMT, it gave brief respite to people in the battered strip from fighting that has killed nearly 1,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

Within hours shelling was resumed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing at least 35 people and wounding 100, medics said.

Shortly afterwards the Israeli army announced the ceasefire was over, saying it was searching for one of its soldiers feared to have been captured in the enclave.
"Our initial indications suggest a soldier has been abducted," army spokesman Peter Lerner said.

The humanitarian truce was over and Israeli forces were pressing their "activities on the ground," he said.

For its part, Hamas said its fighters had carried out an operation in Rafah, but stressed that the operation took place before the truce started.

"It is the (Israeli) occupation which violated the ceasefire. The Palestinian resistance acted based on... the right to self defense," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.