Israel Defense Forces: 'Terrorists have violated the cease

Gaza City (CNN) -- The clock is ticking on the 3-day cease-fire that halted the Gaza conflict.

Two days into the pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, talks led by the Egyptian government are taking place in Cairo but are yet to yield a breakthrough.

Officials from Israel and the Palestinian side -- including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestine Liberation Organization -- are in the city, communicating through Egyptian intermediaries in an effort to reach agreement on extending the truce.

'We are working so hard now,' said Saeb Erakat, a veteran negotiator for the PLO.

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'We're trying to sustain the 72 hours, and we're working now to extend the 72 hours,' he told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

Israel, which withdrew its ground forces from Gaza on Tuesday, is willing to extend the cease-fire unconditionally, an Israeli government official told CNN on Thursday.

'The current one is unconditional, and from our point of view, it can be extended unconditionally,' said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. The Israeli military has said it is maintaining 'defensive positions' around Gaza.

The onus appeared to be on Hamas, the militant Islamic group that holds sway in Gaza.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, told the group's Al-Aqsa television on Wednesday that talk of an extension of the truce for another 72 hours was nothing more than that -- talk.

'There is no basis for the media news about the extension of truce,' he said.

'No sympathy for Hamas'

On paper, the warring sides' positions are far apart.

Israel says it wants Hamas to disarm. Hamas, meanwhile, is demanding an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, a measure Israel says is required to stop weapons being smuggled in.

It remains to be seen what kind of compromise might emerge from the Cairo talks.

'I'm very glad that we have, at least temporarily, achieved a cease-fire. The question now is, how do we build on this temporary cessation of violence and move forward in a sustainable way?' U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday.

The U.S. government has said it will have officials on the ground in Cairo for talks but will not be a party to them. Both Israel and the United States consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.

'I have no sympathy for Hamas,' Obama said. 'I have great sympathy for ordinary people who are struggling within Gaza.'

More than 1,800 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during the conflict, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The United Nations estimates that approximately 65,000 people in the small, impoverished territory lost their homes in the fierce fighting and bombardments.

Maen Areikat, the PLO ambassador to the United States, suggested Obama's concerns should be broader.

'We expect president Obama and the United States to have sympathy to Palestinian victims, to have sympathy to the Palestinians who have been enduring a brutal military occupation for the last 47 years,' he told CNN's Erin Burnett.

Palestinian-American: 'Living in occupation felt normal'Israeli regret over civilian deaths

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the performance of his country's troops in the conflict, again blamed Hamas for civilian casualties and expressed hopes that the Cairo talks could set the stage for a broader peace.

He told a news conference Wednesday that Israel 'deeply regrets' civilian deaths.

It had come under growing international criticism over the number of civilian casualties in the conflict, notably from the United Nations, which accused the Israeli military of shelling U.N. shelters for displaced people.

'The responsibility for this tragedy belongs with Hamas,' Netanyahu said, accusing the group of putting civilians in harm's way and using their deaths as 'PR fodder.'

It's unclear precisely how many of the Palestinian dead were militants. The United Nations has estimated that at least 70% of the dead were civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces says it estimates about 900 militants were killed in the Gaza operation.

Israeli officials have said 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel died in the conflict.

Fearing daughter's Gaza border weddingRocket launcher in residential area

In Gaza City, reporters from France 24 and India's NDTV have shown at least one rocket launcher located in a residential area.

It's in a small vacant block of land, surrounded by homes and hotels where many foreign reporters have been staying. A U.N. building is close by, and video footage has shown children playing on the launcher.

Other reporters, including from CNN, who have tried to get close have been warned off and told the area is now a closed military zone.

The PLO's Areikat sought to play down the significance of the launcher.

'We don't know the circumstances of this particular rocket launcher,' he told CNN. 'And if there has been incidents in which fighters from Palestinian factions fired at Israel from civilian populated centers, I think they were isolated centers. But to portray that this was the rule and not the exception is not a fair representation of what is happening in Gaza.'

Border crossing question

Hamas leaders say that they want to negotiate an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, or at least have a body other than the Israelis controlling the borders.

They also want an extension of fishing rights off Gaza's coast and the release of prisoners detained by Israel.

Among the issues being raised in the current talks, a German diplomatic source told CNN, is a proposal to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt under the auspices of a European Union mission. EU officials operated a similar mission from 2005 to 2007, when Hamas assumed power in Gaza.

Egypt closed the Rafah crossing after the country's military ousted Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsy. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt's new government has declared a terrorist group.

The latest Gaza conflict is the third in less than six years. Previous cease-fires have brought calm for a matter of months or years but failed to tackle the broader issues.

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CNN's John Vause reported from Gaza, Reza Sayah reported from Cairo and Jethro Mullen reported from Hong Kong. CNN's Claudia Rebaza and Karl Penhaul contributed to this report.

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